Sorry, no results... Try modifying your search: |

Natural Science and Femininity
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine thoughts, habits and feelings, male naturalists like Darwin inhabited an uncertain gendered identity. Working from the private domestic comfort of their homes and exercising…
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 8140 - Darwin to Darwin, W. E., [3 January 1872] Darwin congratulates his son for …

Moral Nature
Summary
In Descent of Man, Darwin argued that human morality had evolved from the social instincts of animals, especially the bonds of sympathy and love. Darwin gathered observations over many decades on animal behavior: the heroic sacrifices of social insects,…
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…

Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…

Darwin and working from home
Summary
Ever wondered how Darwin worked? As part of our For the Curious series of simple interactives, ‘Darwin working from home’ lets you explore objects from Darwin’s study and garden at Down House to learn how he worked and what he had to say about it. And not…
Matches: 0 hits

Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 5 hits
- … Page xiv, n., line 7, insert after ‘long afterwards.’: 3 He has …
- … ‘in the years 1794–5’. Page xviii, par. 3, line 9, insert after ‘continued reproduction.’’ …
- … given no answer’. 21 Page 222, par. 1, line 3, substitute for ‘on high authority’: 22 …
- … low water mark seem to be rarely preserved. Page 334, par. 3, line 3, substitute for ‘not …
- … these can be called truly oceanic islands) Page 363, par. 3, line 15, insert after ‘life.’ …

Darwin on childhood
Summary
On his engagement to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1838, Darwin wrote down his recollections of his early childhood. Life. Written August–– 1838 My earliest recollection, the date of which I can approximately tell, and which must have been before…

Biodiversity and its histories
Summary
The Darwin Correspondence Project was co-sponsor of Biodiversity and its Histories, which brought together scholars and researchers in ecology, politics, geography, anthropology, cultural history, and history and philosophy of science, to explore how…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the conservation movement Session 3: Values of Diversity Chair: Helen Anne …
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…

Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 5 hits
- … that Darwin received Wallace’s letter and manuscript on 3 June 1858, the same day that another …
- … was postmarked ‘Singapore Apr 21 58’ and ‘London Ju 3 58’. Brooks maintains that Darwin …
- … forwarded Wallace’s paper to Lyell (Brooks 1984, pp. 262–3). It is of some significance to note that …
- … plan of his book (see letter from Elwin to Murray, 3 May 1859 , and letter to John Murray, 6 …
- … theory for the origin of mankind. As he wrote to Darwin on 3 October 1859, ‘the case of Man and his …

Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 1 hits
- … as weak as a child’, incapable of anything except his ‘ 3 hours daily work at Proof-sheets ’. …

Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 7 hits
- … Hooker told him: ‘you are alluded to in no less than 3 of the papers in Linn. Trans!— I do not think …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 14 [October 1862] ; see ML 2: 292–3). Other species proved more profitable …
- … extent of the subject, telling Oliver: ‘I can see at least 3 classes of dimorphism’ ( letter to …
- … to the Origin ’ ( letter from Asa Gray, 2–3 July 1862 ). Henry Walter Bates …
- … that it was only the administration of ‘Port-wine every 3/4 hour, night & day’ that saved the …
- … to death what to do’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, [2–3 August 1862] ). They determined on a seaside …
- … set to work ( see letter to W. E. Darwin, [2–3 August 1862] , and letter from W. E. Darwin, 5 …
Darwin in public and private
Summary
Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…

Movement in Plants
Summary
The power of movement in plants, published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work that Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin, is mentioned on the title page. The research for this…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to lift the weight of the seed ( letter from Asa Gray, 3 February 1880 ). The matter was finally …

Hackathon
Summary
As the final year of the Darwin Correspondence Project loomed, we wanted to make sure we celebrated the creation of a data set almost fifty years in the making as well as the scholarly achievement of the print volumes. Thus was born Hack Darwin! It was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in the context of its letter. Group 3 proposed quite a different method for …

Biogeography
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Observations aboard the Beagle During his five year journey around the world on HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin encountered many different landscapes and an enormous variety of flora and fauna. Some of his most…

What did Darwin believe?
Summary
What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of Origin of species (1859). They are…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of its first publication.’ ( Pat Boone, WorldNetDaily, 3 Feb 2007 . Also see Darwin would love …

Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…

Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Matches: 5 hits
- … of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 3 (1859): 45–62, it has been transcribed here. …
- … & even in some degree methodically been followed 3 in the most ancient times. There must have …
- … this period, millions on millions of generations. (3) I think it can be shown that there is …
- … if cropped with several species of grasses than with 2 or 3 species. 34 Now every single 35 …
- … ‘astounded’ (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). 3 The printed version reads: ‘was occasionally, …