To J. J. Weir 1 May 1875
Summary
August Weismann is interested in JJW’s experiments on birds and the caterpillars they eat.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Jenner Weir |
Date: | 1 May 1875 |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.468) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9962 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … noted that birds avoided eating brightly coloured caterpillars ( Riley 1869–77 , 3: 134). …
- … Bibliography Riley, Charles Valentine. 1869–77. Annual reports on the noxious, beneficial, …
- … printer [and others]. Weir, John Jenner. 1869. On insects and insectivorous birds; and …
- … and the edibility of Lepidoptera and their larvae. [Read 1 March 1869. ] Transactions …
- … of the Entomological Society of London (1869): 21–6. Weir, John Jenner. 1870. Further …
- … of Lepidoptera and their larvae ( Weir 1869 and Weir 1870 ). Charles Valentine Riley, …
To Francis Darwin [September 1875 or later?]
Summary
Asks FD to make out [Hermann] Hoffmann’s conclusions about the fertilisation of Phaseolus multiflorus [in Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung des Werthes von Species und Varietät (1869)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
Date: | [Sept 1875 or later?] |
Classmark: | CUL, Darwin Pamphlet Collection R112 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9219A |
Matches: 6 hits
- … climate and that it was only a variety, not a true species ( Hoffmann 1869 , p. 78). …
- … in Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung des Werthes von Species und Varietät (1869)]. …
- … John Murray. 1876. Hoffmann, Hermann. 1869. Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung des Werthes von …
- … of the Darwinian hypothesis; Hoffmann 1869 ). An annotated copy is is in the Darwin …
- … is now Phaseolus coccineus . In Hoffmann 1869 , pp. 68–9, Hoffmann described experiments …
- … with which he had experimented ( Hoffmann 1869 , p. 60). He referred to a marbled white …
To C. V. Riley 30 May 1875
Summary
Thanks for the seventh of CVR’s Annual reports on the noxious, beneficial and other insects in the state of Missouri (Riley 1869–77).
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Valentine Riley |
Date: | 30 May 1875 |
Classmark: | Kenneth W. Rendell (dealer) (August 2005) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10002F |
Matches: 4 hits
- … on the noxious, beneficial and other insects in the state of Missouri (Riley 1869–77). …
- … Publishing. 1990. Riley, Charles Valentine. 1869–77. Annual reports on the noxious, …
- … insects in the state of Missouri ( Riley 1869–77 ). The first report sent by Riley to CD …
- … insects in the state of Missouri ( Riley 1869–77 ); thereafter he sent the reports to CD …
From Charlotte Papé 16 July 1875
Summary
Wants to study hereditary mental characters to see whether they are limited by sex – an idea CD holds provisionally and which she doubts. She sends a questionnaire form that she asks CD to criticise. Has read Francis Galton [Hereditary genius (1869)].
Author: | Charlotte Papé |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 July 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 174: 27 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10072 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … form that she asks CD to criticise. Has read Francis Galton [ Hereditary genius (1869)]. …
- … London: John Murray. 1871. Galton, Francis. 1869. Hereditary genius: an inquiry into its …
- … characteristics in families, Galton 1869 and Galton 1874 . For CD’s views on the …
- … cited Galton’s Hereditary genius ( Galton 1869 ) on the superiority of men’s achievements …
From D. Appleton & Co. 11 October 1875
Summary
Has secured rights to Variation from Judd & Co.; had to pay $350 [dollars or pounds!?] for old plates and promise 50% discount on 150 copies of the new edition. Hopes Murray’s charge for plates of new edition will not exceed cost of doing the work in the U. S. Judd lost out considerably from small sale of his edition.
Author: | D. Appleton & Co |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Oct 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 159: 96 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10189 |
To August Weismann 1 and 4 May 1875
Summary
Comments on AW’s work [Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie, vol. 1 (1875)].
On seasonal dimorphism in Lepidoptera in relation to sexual selection.
Discusses evolutionary reversion.
Comments on birds’ avoiding brightly coloured caterpillars. Offers references on subject.
Alpheus Hyatt says Franz Hilgendorf mistaken [about Planorbis multiformis].
Quotes from letter from J. J. Weir on birds’ rejection of brightly-coloured caterpillars.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Leopold Friedrich August (August) Weismann |
Date: | 1 and 4 May 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 148: 344 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9965 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London ( Weir 1869 and Weir 1870 ). …
- … 18: 20–35. Riley, Charles Valentine. 1869–77. Annual reports on the noxious, beneficial, …
- … John Murray. 1875. Weir, John Jenner. 1869. On insects and insectivorous birds; and …
- … and the edibility of Lepidoptera and their larvae. [Read 1 March 1869. ] Transactions …
- … of the Entomological Society of London (1869): 21–6. Weir, John Jenner. 1870. Further …
- … p. 426 in error; the references to the work of Weir ( Weir 1869 and Weir 1870 ) and …
- … Charles Valentine Riley ( Riley 1869–77 , third report (1871)) are given in Descent 2d …
To F. F. Hallett [19 or 20 May 1875]
Summary
Thanks FFH for his note and enclosure [see 9982]. Quotes from Le Couteur [On … wheat (1836)?] to justify statements made in Variation [1868].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Frederic Francis Hallett |
Date: | [19 or 20 May 1875] |
Classmark: | DAR 97: C26 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9984 |
To Herbert Spencer 13 November 1875
Summary
CD cannot remember whether he was on the committee of the Jamaica affair [for prosecution of Governor Eyre in 1866] but he subscribed £10.
It is curious and amusing how positivists hate all men of science, possibly because their prophet [Comte] made laughable and gigantic blunders in predicting the course of science.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Herbert Spencer |
Date: | 13 Nov 1875 |
Classmark: | University of London, Senate House Library (MS.791/111) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10258 |
From G. J. Romanes [before 26 December 1875]
Summary
Asks to borrow Ernst Haeckel’s Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen (1865) [and Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (1869)].
Has not been neglecting Pangenesis for Medusae.
Author: | George John Romanes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 26 Dec 1875] |
Classmark: | E. D. Romanes 1896, p. 46 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10307 |
From R. F. Cooke 26 May 1875
Summary
A set of electros of the woodcuts to Variation was sent to an Italian publisher in 1869, but no reply or payment has been made since then.
Author: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 May 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 453 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9995 |
To J. V. Carus 25 December 1875
Summary
Thanks for errata in Insectivorous plants.
Sends spare copies of his papers, but thinks several are not worth publishing.
Has only one copy, which he will lend JVC, of the best one, on "Erratic boulders of South America" [Collected papers 1: 145–63].
Has not sent "Parallel roads of Glen Roy" [Collected papers 1: 87–137], as he is sure he was wrong.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Julius Victor Carus |
Date: | 25 Dec 1875 |
Classmark: | Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Slg. Darmstaedter Lc 1859: Darwin, Charles, Bl. 137–138) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10323 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Linnean Society of London ( Botany ) 10 (1869): 393–437. Insectivorous plants 2d ed. By …
- … Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875. Nicol, James. 1869. On the origin of the parallel …
- … roads of Glen Roy. [Read 12 May 1869. ] Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of …
- … see Rogers 1861 , Watson 1866 , and Nicol 1869 ). CD intended to include revised versions …
From J. H. Gilbert 24 July 1875
Summary
Thiselton-Dyer has asked on CD’s behalf for results of experiments at Rothamsted on herbage of permanent meadow land. Sends report and tables of botanical analysis.
Author: | Joseph Henry Gilbert |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 July 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 42 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10090 |
From R. F. Cooke 8 October 1875
Summary
Canestrini still owes £10 from 1869 for electros of 1st edition [of Variation].
RC has urged Clowes on with printing of Variation [2d ed.],
but with Climbing plants [2d ed.] ready, it need not be done before the annual sale.
Author: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Oct 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 471 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10187 |
From J. D. Hooker 14 January 1875
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Jan 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 6–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9815 |
From Federico Delpino 8 April 1875
Summary
Sends last part of his book [Ulteriori observazioni sulla dicogamia (1868–74)] [osservazioni!?] and describes contents.
Author: | Federico Delpino |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Apr 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 162: 152 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9919 |
To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 21 July 1875
Summary
Would be obliged for correction of references in Variation [1st ed.].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
Date: | 21 July 1875 |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Thiselton-Dyer, W.T., Letters from Charles Darwin 1873–81: 25–6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10084 |
To C. V. Riley 25 June [1875]
Summary
Is staying at a friend’s [T. H. Farrer’s] house for rest until after 6 July, so cannot see CVR at Down.
Hopes he thanked CVR for the last Report [one of CVR’s Annual reports on the noxious, beneficial and other insects of the State of Missouri (1868–76)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Valentine Riley |
Date: | 25 June [1875] |
Classmark: | Empire Autograph Auctions (dealers) (1 January 2008) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10030F |
From R. F. Cooke 21 April 1875
Summary
V. O. Kovalevsky has paid for the Expression plates.
Still has 400 copies of Chauncey Wright’s pamphlet
and 450 of Müller’s Facts and arguments for Darwin.
Author: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Apr 1875 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 448 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9944 |
To A. G. Butler 23 August 1875
Summary
Sends a moth from Queensland, Australia. The sender says a large number have been caught with proboscises embedded in oranges. CD interested as having a bearing on his Orchis work. Can AGB name the family and any closely allied English genus? The proboscis seems an extraordinary structure [see F. Darwin, "On the structure of the proboscis of Ophideres fullonica", Q. J. Microsc. Sci. n.s. 15 (1875): 384–9].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Arthur Gardiner Butler |
Date: | 23 Aug 1875 |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (28/3) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10133 |
To J. B. Innes 10 May [1875]
Summary
On colour changes in rabbits. Suspects JBI’s is of impure origin.
Is correcting proof of Insectivorous plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
Date: | 10 May [1875] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9975 |
letter | (41) |
Darwin, C. R. | (18) |
Cooke, R. F. | (3) |
Delpino, Federico | (3) |
John Murray | (3) |
D. Appleton & Co | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (23) |
Carus, J. V. | (2) |
Riley, C. V. | (2) |
Thiselton-Dyer, W. T. | (2) |
Weismann, August | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (41) |
Carus, J. V. | (3) |
Cooke, R. F. | (3) |
Delpino, Federico | (3) |
John Murray | (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

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 …