From Hermann Müller 23 October 1867
Summary
Thanks for German version of Origin [1867].
Dipterous insects are adapted to eating pollen rather than only to sucking nectar. He describes such adaptations in two dipteran species.
Author: | Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Oct 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 291 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5657 |
From A. R. Wallace 24 February [1867]
Summary
Protective role of colours in caterpillars and butterflies. Sexual differences in colours of butterflies.
Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Feb [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 82: A19–21 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5416 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … London: John Murray. 1871. Weir, John Jenner. 1869–70. On insects and insectivorous birds; …
- … and the edibility of Lepidoptera and their larvæ. [ Read 1 March 1869 and 4 July 1870. ] …
- … Transactions of the Entomological Society of London (1869): 21–6; (1870): 337–9. …
- … and 31 March 1868 ). See also letter from A. R. Wallace, 10 March 1869 ( Calendar no. …
- … 6651). In 1869 and 1870, Weir read a paper describing his …
- … birds to the Entomological Society ( Weir 1869–70 ); see Descent 1: 417. Wallace refers to …
To the Linnean Society 9 December [1867]
Summary
Gives his comments on the merits of a paper on South African botany [by J. P. M. Weale, "Notes on Bonatea", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 470–6].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Linnean Society |
Date: | 9 Dec [1867] |
Classmark: | Linnean Society of London, SP1249, 1253 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5715 |
From Hermann Julius Meyer 30 July 1867
Summary
Sends fourth volume of A. E. Brehm’s Thierleben. First three sent at V. O. Kovalevsky’s request. Asks CD’s support for an English edition, since this is the first extensive popular work based on CD’s theory.
Author: | Hermann Julius Meyer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 July 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 169 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5590 |
To the Linnean Society 22 February [1867]
Summary
Sends J. P. M. Weale’s paper on Bonatea for consideration by Linnean Society [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 470–6].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Linnean Society |
Date: | 22 Feb [1867] |
Classmark: | Linnean Society of London (SP.1249) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5411 |
To Francis Darwin 30 August [1867–70]
Summary
Asks FD to check whether a Latin sentence is correct.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
Date: | 30 Aug [1867-70] |
Classmark: | DAR 271.3: 1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7312 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Charles Robert Darwin Down 30 Aug 1867 30 Aug 1868 30 Aug 1869 30 Aug 1870 Francis Darwin …
From Daniel MacKintosh 1 December 1867
Summary
Seeks CD’s opinion and references on the causes of terraces in the south of England. He supports sea action as cause, either by currents or on coasts, and has been engaged in a controversy in the Geological Magazine [4 (1867): 571–5] with the subaerial school. Poulett Scrope thinks they are agricultural.
Author: | Daniel Mackintosh |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Dec 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5703 |
To J. P. M. Weale 9 December [1867]
Summary
Has had no less than seven grasses germinate from locust dung sent by JPMW.
JPMW’s paper on Bonatea is being printed by Linnean Society. [See J. P. M. Weale, "Structure and fertilisation of the genus Bonatea", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 470–6.]
Refers to Lyell’s new edition of Principles [10th ed., 2 vols. (1867–8)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Philip Mansel Weale |
Date: | 9 Dec [1867] |
Classmark: | University of Virginia Library, Special Collections (3314 1: 81) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5714 |
From George Henslow 15 August 1867
Summary
Proposes writing a note for Linnean Society ["Note on the structure of Genista tinctoria", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 468], in part using information CD gave him at Down.
Author: | George Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 Aug 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 163 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5606 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot. ) 10 (1869): 468], in part using information CD gave him …
To L. C. Wedgwood 8 June [1867–72]
Summary
Asks her to observe whether her dog exposes his teeth when barking and to think of any facts about expression in her birds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Lucy Caroline Wedgwood; Lucy Caroline Harrison |
Date: | 8 June [1867-72] |
Classmark: | CUL (Add 4251: 334) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7223 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin Down 8 June 1867 8 June 1868 8 June 1869 8 June 1870 8 June 1871 8 June 1872 Lucy …
To J. D. Hooker 17 November [1867]
Summary
Has finished last revise of his book [Variation].
Is curious to know what JDH thinks of Pangenesis. It is fearfully imperfect, yet satisfying, for it connects large groups of facts by an intelligible thread.
Thomas Woolner is coming [to do a bust of CD].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 17 Nov [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 35–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5680 |
From Henry Bence Jones to Emma Darwin 1 October [1867]
Summary
CD’s sudden temporary failure of memory and his eczema are not serious and would be relieved by rest and good diet.
Author: | Henry Bence Jones |
Addressee: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
Date: | 1 Oct [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 168: 78 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5639 |
From Eduard Koch 11 December 1867
Summary
He is sending two copies of vol. 1 of German edition of Variation. Thanks CD for rights to translate future works. Carus has begun translation of second volume. Asks when English edition will appear.
Author: | Eduard Koch; E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Dec 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 169: 42 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5726 |
From Ernst Haeckel 12 May 1867
Summary
Thanks CD for new edition of Origin [4th ed. (1866)].
Comments on CD’s criticism of the harsh tone of Generelle Morphologie. Thinks he may have harmed himself but not the cause. Believes a radical reform of the science necessary, and since most scientists take a prejudiced view of the matter, a vigorous attack is essential.
Describes his travels in Canaries, Spain, and France.
Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 May 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 44 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5533 |
To Fritz Müller 22 February [1867]
Summary
Observations on orchid self-sterility.
Wants information on characters that may have originated through sexual selection in lower animals.
Encloses queries on expression.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Date: | 22 Feb [1867] |
Classmark: | The British Library (Loan MS 10 no 13) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5410 |
To Anton Dohrn 26 November [1867]
Summary
Thanks AD for his paper on "Morphology of the Arthropoda" [Rep. BAAS 37 (1867) pt 2: 82], a deeply interesting subject.
Suggests he examine specimens of Scalpellum.
Fritz Müller thinks CD is mistaken, but CD cannot persuade himself he was wrong in his observations on Balanidae [Living Cirripedia 2: 105].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn |
Date: | 26 Nov [1867] |
Classmark: | Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Ana 525. Ba 694) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5698 |
From Daniel MacKintosh 8 December [1867]
Summary
Thanks CD for information on inclined terraces in S. America, which DM thinks applies to the chalk downs of S. England. CD’s definition that the sea widens and fresh water deepens is key to the subject.
Author: | Daniel Mackintosh |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Dec [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5711 |
From A. R. Wallace 2 March [1867]
Summary
Pleased that CD approves his idea about caterpillars.
Thinks CD is right about selection in butterflies, but still believes protective adaptation has kept down colours of females.
Cannot yet see action of natural selection in forming the races of man.
Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Mar [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 85: A98 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5968 |
To Paul Rohrbach 23 February [1867]
Summary
Thanks PR for his memoir on Epipogium ["Über den Blüthenbau von Epipogium" (1866)]. The structure and manner of fertilisation are new to CD;
he has long suspected that the classification of orchids requires considerable modification.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Paul Rohrbach |
Date: | 23 Feb [1867] |
Classmark: | Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Slg. Darmstaedter Lc 1859: Darwin, Charles, Bl. 228–229 ) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5414 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
From Julius von Haast 12 May – 2 June 1867
Summary
JvH will help with expression queries. Considers CD’s investigation highly important and original. Sends list of men to whom he is sending copies of the questions.
Author: | John Francis Julius (Julius) von Haast |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 May – 2 June 1867 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5534 |
letter | (55) |
Darwin, C. R. | (23) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Müller, Fritz | (3) |
Haeckel, Ernst | (2) |
Mackintosh, Daniel | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (31) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Linnean Society | (2) |
Müller, Fritz | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (54) |
Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
Müller, Fritz | (5) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Weale, J. P. M. | (4) |

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

Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
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
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…

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 …
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…

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 …
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. …

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 …
Interview with John Hedley Brooke
Summary
John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as the author of the influential Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He has had a long career in the history of science and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in spiritualism. He first writes to Darwin about this in 1869, and this is exactly the same time …