From Gilbert William Child 26 January [1870]
Summary
Sends 2d ed. of his Essays on physiological subjects (1869).
Author: | Gilbert William Child |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Jan [1870] |
Classmark: | DAR 161: 141 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6579 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Sends 2d ed. of his Essays on physiological subjects (1869). …
- … Bibliography Child, Gilbert William. 1869. Essays on physiological subjects. 2d edition. …
- … The year is established by the reference to Child 1869 (see n. 2, below). …
- … Child refers to the second edition of Essays on physiological subjects ( Child 1869 ). …
- … The book was published in November 1869 ( Publishers’ Circular , …
- … 15 November 1869, p. 747). The first edition had …
- … Child 1868). There are two copies of Child 1869 in the Darwin Library–Down and one of …
- … Child 1868. The fourth essay in Child 1869 had the title ‘Some aspects of the theory of …
From Fritz Müller 29 March 1870
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 Mar 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 76: B36 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7150 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … to letter to Fritz Müller, 1 December [1869] . See Correspondence vol. 16, letters from …
- … 1868 , and Correspondence vol. 17, letters from Fritz Müller, 12 January 1869 and …
- … 18 October 1869 . Müller refers to Alexander Agassiz (see also Correspondence …
- … vol. 17, letter to Fritz Müller, 1 December [1869] ). A. Agassiz 1864 . …
- … See Correspondence vol. 17, letter from Fritz Müller, 18 December 1869 . …
- … the letter to Fritz Müller, 1 December [1869] ( Correspondence vol. 17). Müller had six …
- … issue of the Academy , dated 9 October 1869, contained a review of the English translation …
- … of Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869; Academy …
- … 1 (1869–70): 14–15). Müller also refers to Wallace 1869c ( …
- … vol. 17, letter to Fritz Müller, 1 December [1869] ). See Wallace 1869a, 1: 199–207. See …
- … 1868 from your seeds and which only flowered 1869. — The other plants from the same seeds, …
From E. C. Rye 29 June 1870
Summary
Draws CD’s attention to a paper in American Naturalist [3 (1869): 109] describing honey-bees killed by entanglement in pollen-masses of Asclepias.
Author: | Edward Caldwell Rye |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 June 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 176: 229 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7252 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … mentioned the reports in American Naturalist in Zoological Record 6 (1869): 130. Further …
- … observations were made in American Naturalist 3 (1869): 388–9. …
- … to a paper in American Naturalist [3 (1869): 109] describing honey-bees killed by …
- … not been found. In American Naturalist 3 (1869): 109, a correspondent described how honey- …
- … from The
〈 Amer〉 ican Naturalist, Vol. III, 1869,〈 p. 10〉 9—in which the causes of〈 death〉 … - … across it in working up the matter for 1869
〈 “Zo〉 ological Record”. Yours truly | E. C. …
From Edward Caldwell Rye 14 February 1870
Summary
Draws CD’s attention to a paper by Maurice Girard containing observations on the fertilisation of Orchidaceae by two species of Longicornia [Ann. Soc. Entomol. France 9 (1869): xxxi–xxxii].
Author: | Edward Caldwell Rye |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Feb 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 176: 228 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7106 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … by two species of Longicornia [ Ann. Soc. Entomol. France 9 (1869): xxxi–xxxii]. …
- … Société Entomologique de France 4th ser. 9 (1869): xxxi–xxxii) in Orchids 2d ed. , p. …
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
- … in Ann. & Mag. of
〈 Nat.〉 Hist. , Sep. 1869 (which I have just〈 care〉 fully re-perused … - … for the Coleoptera of Zoological Record, 1869, now in my hands), I find no specification …
- … in the Annales d. l. Soc. Entom.
〈 d〉 e France, 1869, Bulletin, p. xxxi, of〈 c〉 ertain …
From Charles Edward Cutts Birchall Appleton 2 March [1870]
Summary
CD was good enough to send notice of his new book [Descent] for the first number of the Academy; asks for further contributions and suggestions.
Author: | Charles Edward Cutts Birchall Appleton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Mar [1870] |
Classmark: | DAR 159: 78 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7125 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Alfred Russel Wallace’s review of Murphy 1869 (Wallace 1869d) in his letter to A. …
- … R. Wallace, 5 December [1869] ( Correspondence vol. 17). …
- … John Murray. 1871. Murphy, Joseph John. 1869. Habit and intelligence in their connexion …
- … of Descent in the Academy , 9 October 1869, and by the relationship between this letter …
- … Appleton, 18 May [1870] . See Academy 1 (1869–70): 15–16. The notice appeared under the …
- … the laws of matter and force ( Murphy 1869 ). This book was not reviewed in the Academy. …
To Jean Jacques Moulinié 18 August 1870
Summary
Under present circumstances [Franco-Prussian War] gives up French translation of Descent.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Jean Jacques Moulinié |
Date: | 18 Aug 1870 |
Classmark: | Bibliothèque de Genève (Ms. suppl. 66, ff. 16–17) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7304 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … J. Moulinié, 23 October [1869] ). CD had asked Moulinié to undertake a new translation of …
- … vol. 17, letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 October [1869] , and letter from J. …
- … J. Moulinié, 5 November 1869 ). See letter to Mr Dorrell, 9 August 1870 and n. 2. …
- … about a French translation of Descent in 1869; it was published in 1872 (Moulinié trans. …
- … 1872; see Correspondence vol. 17, letters from J. J. Moulinié, 20 October 1869 and …
- … 5 November 1869 , and letter to J. …
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869. Origin 6th ed. : The origin of species by …
To James Crichton-Browne 31 January [1870]
Summary
Asks JC-B to return copy of Duchenne [Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine (1862)] and sends some notes "as your former notes were of such extreme interest to me".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Crichton-Browne |
Date: | 31 Jan [1870] |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 329 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7089 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … the letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June 1869 ( Correspondence vol. 17). CD had lent …
- … vol. 17, letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June 1869 and n. 9). For Crichton-Browne’ …
- … notes, see ibid. , letter from Henry Maudsley, 20 May 1869 , enclosure 2, and letter from …
- … James Crichton-Browne, 1 June 1869 . Crichton-Browne …
- … had not written to CD since June 1869 owing to illness (see letter from James Crichton- …
To Armand de Quatrefages 28 May [1870]
Summary
Comments on QdeB’s volume [Charles Darwin et ses précurseurs Français (1870)]. Mentions error concerning his views on Parus and nuthatch.
Discusses Canis magellanicus.
Discusses reception of his views in France and Germany.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau |
Date: | 28 May [1870] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.379) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7204 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … 17, letter from Armand de Quatrefages, 29 March 1869 and n. 2). …
- … animales et végétales. Revue des deux mondes 2d ser. 78 (1868): 832–60; 79 (1869): 208– …
- … 40; 80 (1869): 64–95, 397–432, 638–72. Quatrefages, Armand de. 1870. Charles Darwin et ses …
- … of articles that Quatrefages had sent in 1869; CD’s annotated copy of an offprint of the …
- … Descent. George Howard Darwin had visited Paris in March 1869 (see Correspondence vol. …
To Tord Tamerlan Teodor Thorell 20 April 1870
Summary
Thanks TTTT for his study of European spiders [On European spiders Part 1 (1869–70)] which bases its classification system on the theory of evolution.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Tord Tamerlau Teodor Thorell |
Date: | 20 Apr 1870 |
Classmark: | Sotheby’s, New York (dealers) (1997) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7168A |
Matches: 5 hits
- … spiders [ On European spiders Part 1 (1869–70)] which bases its classification system on …
- … copy of Thorell’s On European spiders ( Thorell 1869–70 ) in the Darwin Library–CUL (see …
- … Marginalia 1: 806). CD cited Thorell 1869–70 in Descent 1: 315 n. …
- … 71. In Thorell 1869–70 , p. 42 n. 1, Thorell wrote, ‘I believe with darwin , “that …
- … Murray. 1866. Thorell, Tord Tamerlan Teodor. 1869–70. On European spiders. Part I, Review …
From Alexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky 25 September 1870
Summary
Outlines the evidence for his view that ascidian larvae are true vertebrates presented in his paper ["Weitere Studien über die Entwicklung der einfachen Ascidien", Arch. Mikrosk. Anat. 7 (1871): 101–302]. CD can cite this as confirmation of AOK’s earlier claims.
Author: | Alexander Onufrievich Kovalevsky |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Sept 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 169: 52 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7326 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Murray. 1871. Kovalevsky, Alexander Onufrievich. 1869. Embryologische Studien an Würmern …
- … und Arthropoden. [Read 18 November 1869. ] Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences …
- … Bibliography Claparède, Edouard. 1869. Histologische Untersuchungen über den Regenwurm ( …
- … ou Decembre. — Pendant l’anné passé (1869) j’ai étudié l’embryologie des annelides et je …
- … of November or December. — In the last year (1869) I have studied annelid embryology and I …
- … is to Edouard Claparède and Claparède 1869 . Claparède noted the similarity between the …
- … myelin sheath of vertebrates ( Claparède 1869 , p. 590). ‘Darmdrüsenblatt’: gut-gland- …
- … and arthropods ( A. O. Kovalevsky 1869 ). It appeared in the 1871 volume of Mémoires de …
From Alfred Newton 11 February 1870
Summary
Is glad to hear that CD is pleased with AN’s notice of his work on pigeons.
He will not soon forget the pleasure of his visit to Down.
Author: | Alfred Newton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Feb 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 172: 48 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7103 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … the paper. Newton refers to [Tait] 1869 , and to William Thomson; see also Correspondence …
- … 17, letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 July [1869] . Emma, Henrietta Emma, and Elizabeth Darwin. …
- … University Press. 1985–. McCann, James. 1869. Anti-Darwinism. With Professor Huxley’s …
- … Latin). James McCann’s pamphlet ( McCann 1869 ) was the published version of a paper he …
- … the Advancement of Science in Exeter in 1869. It included as its final section ‘Professor …
From J. D. Hooker [7 March 1870]
Summary
Does not give much for botanical results of Round Island, but the zoology is wonderful.
Lyell’s new book [The student’s elements of geology (1870)]. Urges Lyell to make it Elementary principles.
Grove is disgusted with CD for being disquieted by William Thomson: "Take another dose of Huxley’s penultimate address to Geol. Soc." [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 25 (1869): 28–53].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [7 Mar 1870] |
Classmark: | DAR 103: 42–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6646 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … of Huxley’s penultimate address to Geol. Soc." [ Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 25 (1869): 28–53]. …
- … and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, delivered on 27 April 1869 ( Transactions of the Norfolk …
- … and Norwich Naturalists’ Society 1 (1869–70): 13–18). John Gunn, Hooker’s uncle by …
- … Island (near Mauritius) dated 17 November 1869 and 13 January 1870 (Archives of the Royal …
- … 17, letter from Charles Lyell, 2 November 1869 . For Hooker’s objection to CD’s suggestion …
- … D. Hooker, 9 November 1856 . In his 1869 address to the Geological Society of London ( …
From Edward Livingston Youmans 25 September 1870
Summary
Concerning an American edition of Descent by Appleton’s.
Author: | Edward Livingston Youmans |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Sept 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 183: 2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7324 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … was published in Philadelphia by Lippincott in 1869; D. Appleton & Co. also published an …
- … London: John Murray. 1871. Galton, Francis. 1869. Hereditary genius: an inquiry into its …
- … into its laws and consequences ( Galton 1869 ) was published by D. Appleton & Co. in …
- … Science 33: 187–207. Mill, John Stuart. 1869. The subjection of women. London: Longmans, …
- … of women was published by Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer ( Mill 1869 ). An American …
From Louis Rérolle 15 June 1870
Summary
French translation of Orchids is published.
Author: | Louis Rérolle |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 June 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 176: 132 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7234 |
Matches: 4 hits
To T. H. Farrer 28 May [1870]
Summary
Fertilisation of barberries.
Passiflora.
Is continuing his experiments on the comparative growth of crossed and self-fertilised plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer |
Date: | 28 May [1870] |
Classmark: | Linnean Society of London (LS Ms 299/14) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7205 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Bibliography Axell, Severin. 1869. Om anordningarna för de fanerogama växternas …
- … House was sometime shortly before 9 October 1869 (see Correspondence vol. 17, letter from …
- … T. H. Farrer, 9 October 1869 and n. 6). Hedaroma is now subsumed within Darwinia , a …
- … on Johan Severin Axell’s monograph, Axell 1869 (see letter from Federico Delpino, 20 May …
- … letter to Federico Delpino, 14 October 1869 and n. 8). CD also refers to George Howard …
From John Dean Caton 17 November 1870
Summary
Observations on winter colour of coats of male and female elk,
spots on deer,
and tuft of hair on breasts of wild female turkeys.
Author: | John Dean Caton |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Nov 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 83: 172–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7375 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … also letter from J. D. Caton, 5 May 1869 ( Correspondence vol. 17). See Correspondence …
- … vol. 17, letter from J. D. Caton, 5 May 1869 , and letter to J. …
- … D. Caton, 24 May 1869 and n. 3. The references are to John James Audubon, and Audubon …
- … see Correspondence vol. 17, letter to J. D. Caton, 20 March 1869, and letter from J. …
- … D. Caton, 5 May 1869 . See Caton 1877a, pp. 136 and 144–6; CD cited Caton for this …
- … me of my former error I have during 1869 & ’70 added to my collection live specimens both …
From Asa Gray 14 February 1870
Summary
Louis Agassiz’s ill health means AG will not get an answer to CD’s query from him. Suggests CD ask Agassiz’s son, Alexander.
Has no details about the origin of the cat-like behaviour of his dog.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Feb 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 173 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7105 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Agassiz visited Down on or shortly before 1 December 1869 (see Correspondence vol. …
- … 17, letter to Fritz Müller, 1 December [1869] ). …
- … after giving an address on 14 September 1869 and was ill for ten months ( Marcou 1896 , …
- … 17, letter from Charles Layton, 23 December 1869 ). The head of the firm was William Henry …
From T. H. Farrer 29 June 1870
Summary
Has procured a Passiflora flower at last. Structure suited for humming-birds rather than bees.
Author: | Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 June 1870 |
Classmark: | DAR 164: 65 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7254 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … the pollination mechanism of Passiflora princeps in October 1869; Farrer had obtained an …
- … imperfect specimen in November 1869 (see Correspondence vol. 17, letter to T. …
- … H. Farrer, 20 October [1869] , and letter from T. …
- … H. Farrer, 5 November 1869 ). Passiflora princeps is now P. racemosa , the red …
To Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden 2 May [1870]
Summary
Thanks for copies of FVH’s "Preliminary field report [of the U. S. Geological Survey] of Colorado and New Mexico" [Am. J. Sci. 49 (1870): 258–63] and Geological report [of the exploration] of the Yellowstone [and Missouri] River[s under the direction of Captain W. F. Reynolds (1869)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden |
Date: | 2 May [1870] |
Classmark: | Smithsonian Archives (Record Unit 7177, Image No. SIA2016-009764) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7178 |
To Joseph Dalton Hooker 21 February [1870]
Summary
Has read the notes on Rond [Round] Island which he owes to JDH. What an enigma its flora and fauna present, especially the problem of monocotyledons! Asks JDH’s opinion.
A new book on St Helena confirms CD’s observations.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 21 Feb [1870] |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 164–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7115 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … St Helena , by John Ryder Oliver ( Oliver 1869 ); the review has not been identified. CD …
- … University Press. 1985–. Oliver, John R. 1869. The geology of St Helena. St Helena: …
- … and Sciences of Mauritius on 30 December 1869 and published in the Mauritius almanac and …
- … from J. D. Hooker to Emma Darwin, 29 March 1869 . The Darwins stayed with Erasmus Alvey …
letter | (120) |
Darwin, C. R. | (48) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Reade, W. W. | (4) |
Galton, Francis | (3) |
Murray, John (b) | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (119) |
Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
Murray, John (b) | (5) |
Crichton-Browne, James | (4) |
Gray, Asa | (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…
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- … 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…
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…
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- … 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…
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- … John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down …

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…
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- … From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through …
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…
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- … in spiritualism. He first writes to Darwin about this in 1869, and this is exactly the same time …