From Mary Somerville 30 October 1866
Summary
Thanks CD for permission to use illustrations from Orchids in her work [On molecular and microscopic science (1869)].
| Author: | Mary Fairfax; Mary Greig; Mary Somerville |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Oct 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 217 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5259 |
To Mary Elizabeth Lyell [19? October 1866]
Summary
Mary Somerville may use diagrams from Orchids [in her Molecular and microscopic science (1869)], but permission should be obtained from John Murray.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Mary Elizabeth Horner; Mary Elizabeth Lyell |
| Date: | [19? Oct 1866] |
| Classmark: | Bodleian Library (Dep.c.370, folder MSD-1: on loan from Somerville College, Oxford) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5249 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … her Molecular and microscopic science (1869)], but permission should be obtained from John …
- … London: John Murray. 1862. Somerville, Mary. 1869. On molecular and microscopic science. 2 …
- … Orchids in her book On molecular and microscopic science ( Somerville 1869 , 1: 389–403). …
- … CD’s copy of Somerville 1869 is in the Darwin Library–Down House. John Murray, CD’s …
From A. R. Wallace 4 February 1866
Summary
Looks forward to reading Variation.
Explains how two or more female forms occur in one species through selection. The physiological problem remains of how each produces offspring like the other without intermediates. Is not CD’s case of varieties that will not blend the physiological test of a species needed for "complete proof of the origin of species"?
"Travels" postponed.
| Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Feb 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 106: B31–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4997 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … of 1867 and 1868 writing A. R. Wallace 1869 ( A. R. Wallace 1905 , 1: 405–6). See also …
- … R. Wallace 1869); in the preface, p. viii, Wallace explained, ‘I could, indeed, at once …
- … uninstructive to the public. ’ Between 1862 and 1869, Wallace published over thirty papers …
- … on his collections (A. R. Wallace 1869, 1: viii–xiv). For a bibliography of Wallace’s …
- … 1866. The two-volume narrative, The Malay Archipelago , was published in 1869 (A. …
From John Traherne Moggridge 15 February [1866]
Summary
Is sending Ophrys plants marked as CD requested as wild or under cultivation. Discusses arrangements for a scheme planned for 1867 and his method for marking his Ophrys specimens.
| Author: | John Traherne Moggridge |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 Feb [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR Pamphlet collection G368 (bound in part of Moggridge 1865–8) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5008A |
Matches: 4 hits
- … 1858–1900. Moggridge, John Traherne. 1869. Ueber Ophrys insectifera L. (part. ) Dresden: …
- … a further example was considered in Moggridge 1869 , p. 6. CD had noted that in Britain …
- … spring 1867 are also recorded in Moggridge 1869 (‘Ueber Ophrys insectifera L. (part)’). CD …
- … of characters in Ophrys is given in Moggridge 1869 , pp. 6–7. Similar variation in the …
From Mary Lubbock to H. E. Darwin [8 May 1866 – 31 August 1871]
Summary
Age at which babies first shed tears.
| Author: | Frances Mary (Mary) Lubbock |
| Addressee: | Henrietta Emma Darwin; Henrietta Emma Litchfield |
| Date: | [8 May 1866 – 31 Aug 1871] |
| Classmark: | DAR 170: 19 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5332 |
From H. B. Jones 10 February [1866]
Summary
Sends a diet for CD’s flatulence.
| Author: | Henry Bence Jones |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Feb [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 168: 77 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5003 |
From T. H. Huxley 6 July 1866
Summary
Has taken memorial to G. H. Richards, the Hydrographer. He favours the proposal and will instruct Capt. Mayne. THH will communicate with Dr Cunningham, the naturalist for the expedition.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 July 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 311 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5149 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … surveyed the Straits of Magellan from 1866 to 1869 ( DNB ). Robert Oliver Cunningham. Emma …
From W. B. Tegetmeier [after 24 January 1866]
Summary
Thanks for the remittance.
Both WBT and Mr Zurhorst will repeat Zurhorst’s experiment to eliminate any chance of error.
Edward Blyth is writing on Indian cattle for the Field [27 (1866): 55–6, 77].
| Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 24 Jan 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4979 |
To Fritz Müller 23 August [1866]
Summary
Thanks for observations on orchids.
FM’s paper on climbing plants [see 5146]; CD has received proofs.
Carl Claus’s pamphlet on copepods [Die Copepodenfauna von Nizza (1866)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Date: | 23 Aug [1866] |
| Classmark: | British Library (Loan MS 10 no 8) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5196 |
From J. T. Moggridge 10 May [1866]
Summary
Sends a box of orchids.
| Author: | John Traherne Moggridge |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 May [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 205 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5084 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
From Fritz Müller 6 March 1866
Summary
Thanks CD for German translation of Origin.
Droughts over the summers have brought about changes in the numbers of plants and animals in the area. The small quantity of Orchestia darwinii that has survived the changes no longer includes two previously common male forms. Great changes also take place without such unusual physical conditions. The disappearance of a briefly abundant bryozoan in local caves has made way not for the return of original bryozoan inhabitants but for a completely new fauna.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Mar 1866 |
| Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 80–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5027A |
From Cuthbert Collingwood 15 February 1866
Summary
Going to Orient as naturalist aboard the Rifleman. Offers CD his services.
| Author: | Cuthbert Collingwood |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 Feb 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 212 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5008 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … China Sea and published between 1867 and 1869 (see Royal Society catalogue of scientific …
To the Lords of the Admiralty [2–4 July 1866]
Summary
Petition earnestly requesting that a ship surveying the Strait of Magellan collect fossil bones in the south of Patagonia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Admiralty, Lords of the |
| Date: | [2–4 July 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 96: 25–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5142 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the Straits of Magellan from 1866 to 1869; the naturalist on the voyage was Robert Oliver …
From John Edward Gray 28 February 1866
Summary
Has received the larva of the batrachian. Outlines its affinities. Problems of batrachian systematics.
| Author: | John Edward Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 Feb 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 209 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5021 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … had made classification within the tribe complex (J. E. Gray ed. 1869, pp. 43, 59–77). …
From George Henslow 7 April 1866
Summary
Sends copies of Science gossip and The leisure hour.
Enjoyed visit.
His criticism of Primula fertility referred to table 2 [Collected papers 2: 56] where weight of seeds produced from good pods by long-styled homostylous cross and short-styled heterostylous cross are virtually identical.
| Author: | George Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Apr 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 157 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5048 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] [ …
From Charles Lyell 1 March 1866
Summary
Feels sure that at times the globe must have been superficially cooler. Believes CD will turn out right with regard to migration across the equator via mountain chains, while the tropical heat of certain lowlands was retained.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Mar 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 91: 89–90 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5024 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869. Origin : On the origin of species by means …
From Rudolf Suchsland 16 March 1866
Summary
Asks, on behalf of his father, whether he might publish a new German translation of the Origin, believing Bronn’s to be inadequate.
| Author: | Georg Rudolf Emil (Rudolf) Suchsland |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Mar 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 271 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5035 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … den deutschen Buchhandel 3 (1836): 830 and 36 (1869): 434). Two editions of Heinrich Georg …
To Charles Lyell 8 March [1866]
Summary
Gives details of enclosed MS on cool period. Mentions Hooker’s opposed "axis of the earth" view. Causes of glacial period are beyond CD; "cannot believe change in land and water being more than a subsidiary agent".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 8 Mar [1866] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.316) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5028 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869. Origin 6th ed. : The origin of species by …
To Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli 12 June [1866]
Summary
Comments on CWvN’s Die Entstehung und Begriff [der Naturhistorischen Art (1864)].
Discussion of beauty of flowers in new edition of Origin not based on CWvN’s article.
Comments on CWvN’s argument that flower structures are not due to natural selection.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli |
| Date: | 12 June [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 181 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5119 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869. Origin : On the origin of species by means …
To A. R. Wallace 5 July [1866]
Summary
CD considers "the survival of the fittest" as alternative term to "Natural Selection". Reflections upon misunderstanding and his own ambiguity.
Health improved; can now work "some hours daily".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 5 July [1866] |
| Classmark: | British Library (Add 46434, f.70) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5145 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to the Malay archipelago (A. R. Wallace 1869; see Correspondence vol. 13, letter to …
| letter | (45) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (18) |
| Moggridge, J. T. | (3) |
| Müller, Fritz | (3) |
| Henslow, George | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (26) |
| Müller, Fritz | (6) |
| Carus, J. V. | (2) |
| Lyell, Charles | (2) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (44) |
| Müller, Fritz | (9) |
| Lyell, Charles | (4) |
| Wallace, A. R. | (4) |
| Carus, J. V. | (3) |
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 27 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition …
- … that is something’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 January 1869] ). Much of the remainder of …
- … to be the case’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January 1869 ). Hooker went straight to a crucial …
- … probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , and letter from A. R. Wallace, …
- … in distribution’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Darwin had argued ( Origin , pp. …
- … formation’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Croll could not supply Darwin with an …
- … have got that yet’ ( letter from James Croll, 4 February 1869 ). Darwin did not directly …
- … towards [Thomson]’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 19 March [1869] ). Towards Descent …
- … ‘everlasting old Origin’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 1 June [1869] ), he was able to return to work on …
- … ( letter from Robert Elliot to George Cupples, 21 June 1869 ). Details on mating behaviour …
- … in the garden ( letter from Frederick Smith, 8 October 1869 ). Albert Günther, assistant in the …
- … varieties ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 25 February [1869] ). The data contined to …
- … cocks & hens.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 November [1869] ). Yet completion of the work was …
- … for Descent . Researching emotion In 1869, Darwin still expected that Descent …
- … hatred—’ ( from Asa Gray and J. L. Gray, 8 and 9 May [1869] ). James Crichton-Browne and …
- … ( enclosure to letter from Henry Maudsley, 20 May 1869 ). Darwin had often complained of the …
- … in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). More remarkable still were Wallace …
- … seem to you like some mental hallucination’ ( 18 April 1869 ). Since his marriage to Annie …
- … (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and scolded him for again being too …
- … demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). Proceeding on all fronts …
- … South American cordillera ( letter to Charles Lyell, 20 May 1869 ), and fossil discoveries in …
- … investigated in depth ( letter from C. F. Claus, 6 February 1869 ). In a letter to the Gardeners …
- … of the soil ( letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 9 May [1869] ). In March, Darwin received …
- … in the early 1860s ( letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March 1869 ). This research contributed to …
- … editions ( see letter from Victor Masson, 29 September 1869 ). The work had been undertaken, like …
- … Animals”’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 November [1869] ). Angered by these proceedings, Darwin …
- … of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an explication of Darwinian …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 11 hits
- … Crichton-Browne, James 20 May 1869 32 Queen Anne St. …
- … Crichton-Browne, James 19 May 1869 West Riding …
- … Gray, Asa 9 May [1869] [Alexandria, Egypt] …
- … Gray, Jane 9 May [1869] [Alexandria, Egypt] …
- … Gray, Asa 8 & 9 May 1869 Florence, Italy (about …
- … King, P.G. 25 Feb 1869 Sydney, Australia …
- … Maudsley, Henry 20 May 1869 32 Queen Anne St. …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 17 Jan 1869 Sierra Leone, Africa …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 28 June [1869] Sierra Leone, …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 26 Dec 1869 Sierra Leone, Africa …
- … Scott, John 2 July 1869 Royal Botanic Gardens, …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 4 hits
- … Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L to Darwin, [8 & 9 May 1869] Jane Loring Gray, …
- … Williams , M. S. to Darwin, H. E., [after 14 October 1869] Darwin’s niece, Margaret, …
- … Letter 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s …
- … - Darwin to Gunther, A. C. L. G., [21 September 1869] Darwin asks Gunther for “a great …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 3 hits
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Photograph album of Dutch admirers
Summary
Darwin received the photograph album for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from his scientific admirers in the Netherlands. He wrote to the Dutch zoologist Pieter Harting, An account of your countrymen’s generous sympathy in having sent me on my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … work on human expression. Donders visited Darwin in 1869 , and a year later Darwin consoled him …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for ‘experimental purposes’ (see Correspondence vol. 10, letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1862], and volume 10, letter to Thomas Rivers, 15 January 1863). The decision…
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. B., [8 November 1869] Darwin thanks Antoinette …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
John Beddoe
Summary
In 1869, when gathering data on sexual selection in humans, Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with John Beddoe, a doctor in Bristol. He was looking for evidence that racial differences that appear to have no benefit in terms of survival - and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1869 Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with a John Beddoe, a doctor in …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 4 hits
- … himself an injustice & never demands justice” (14 April 1869). But Wallace continued, both …
- … about the application of natural selection to ‘man’ in 1869, and looked instead to a ‘higher …
- … investigation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 18 April [1869]). Wallace’s views on man were also …
- … the “great General” (letter to Charles Kingsley, 7 May 1869). In later years when Darwin reflected …
Francis Galton
Summary
Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics…
Matches: 1 hits
- … was later expanded into the book, Hereditary Genius (1869), which contained an entry on the …
6248A_20488
Summary
From Fritz Müllerf1 17 June 1868Itajahy, Sa. Catharina, Brazil,17. Juni 1868. .... . Sie werden schon aus meinem letzten Briefe ersehen haben, dass es mir sehr schmeichelhaft ist, wenn Sie meine…
Matches: 4 hits
- … F. Müller 1864; the translation was W. S. Dallas trans. 1869. f3 The original enclosure …
- … The figure and page references are to W. S. Dallas trans. 1869. f15 Podophthalma: …
- … F. Müller 1864; the translation was W. S. Dallas trans. 1869. f3 The original enclosure …
- … text Möller 1915–21, 2: 141–3; W. S. Dallas trans. 1869, pp. 119–21 n. Physcial description …
6248A_20488A
Summary
From Fritz Müllerf1 17 June 1868Itajahy, Sa. Catharina, Brazil,17. Juni 1868. .... . Sie werden schon aus meinem letzten Briefe ersehen haben, dass es mir sehr schmeichelhaft ist, wenn Sie meine…
Matches: 4 hits
- … F. Müller 1864; the translation was W. S. Dallas trans. 1869. f3 The original enclosure …
- … The figure and page references are to W. S. Dallas trans. 1869. f15 Podophthalma: …
- … F. Müller 1864; the translation was W. S. Dallas trans. 1869. f3 The original enclosure …
- … text Möller 1915–21, 2: 141–3; W. S. Dallas trans. 1869, pp. 119–21 n. Physcial description …
6430_10256
Summary
From Sven Nilsson to J. D. Hookerf1 25 October 1868Lund (Suède)25 Okt. 1868.Monsieur le Professeur! J’ai écrit à deux de mes amis qui ont des connaissances personnelles à la Lapponie, pour avoir les…
About the project
Summary
On this site you can read and search the full texts of more than 7,500 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and find information on 7,500 more. Available here are complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1869. More are…
Matches: 1 hits
- … all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1869. More are being added all the time. …
Family life
Summary
From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through correspondence about his marriage to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, the births—and deaths—of their children, to the contributions of his sons and daughters to his scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through …
John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
Matches: 1 hits
- … John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down …
