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New features for Charles Darwin's 208th birthday
Summary
The website has been updated with an interactive timeline (try it!) and enhanced secondary school resources for ages 11-14. What's more, the full texts of the letters for 1872 are now online for the first time, and a selection of Darwin's…
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- … in print. A fitting way to celebrate Darwin's birthday on 12 February. Use the …
Upper Gower Street
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Moves to 12 Upper Gower Street, London
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- … Moves to 12 Upper Gower Street, London …

Darwin & coral reefs
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The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
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- … reefs, such would be very abundant).– [Notebook no. 1.18: 12.] Then, a few pages later, …

John Murray
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Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…

Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'
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The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…
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- … conviction that species were mutable (S. Herbert 1980, p. 12; Sulloway 1982b). Using transmutation …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
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Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
3.1 Antoine Claudet, daguerreotype
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< Back to Introduction This daguerreotype of Darwin with his firstborn child, William, was, according to a label on the glass, taken on 23 August 1842, just before the family moved from London to Down. It is generally attributed to the French…
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- … daguerreotypes’, National Heritage Science Forum (12 March 2016), at https:/ …
1.5 Samuel Laurence drawing 2
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< Back to Introduction This chalk sketch of Darwin by Samuel Laurence is (as Francis Darwin surmised) likely to have been done in 1853, at the same sitting as the portrait in three-quarter view which is now at Down House. It is inscribed on the back…

Darwin on marriage
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On 11 November 1838 Darwin wrote in his journal ‘The day of days!’. He had proposed to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and been accepted; they were married on 29 January 1839. Darwin appears to have written these two notes weighing up the pros and cons of…
1.6 Ouless oil portrait
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< Back to Introduction The first commissioned oil portrait of Darwin was painted by Walter William Ouless, who was given sittings at Down House in March 1875. The idea for such a portrait came from Darwin’s son William, who as far back as 1872 had…

Biogeography
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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…
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- … Charles. On the Origin of Species , chapters 11 and 12 Papers Darwin, Charles. …

Darwin’s introduction to geology
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Darwin collected minerals as a child and was introduced to the science of geology at the University of Edinburgh, but he only became actively interested in the subject as he was completing his degree at Cambridge.
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- … and is a topic of active research by historians. On 12 August, Darwin may have accompanied Sedgwick …

Virginia Isitt: Darwin’s secretary?
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In an undated and incomplete draft letter to a “Miss I.”, Emma Darwin appears to be arranging for Miss I. to come to Down for a trial period as a secretary. When the letter first came to light, no one had heard of the mysterious “Miss I.” and, as far as we…
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Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
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On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
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- … in 1864 he drew up the results (see Correspondence vol. 12, Appendix III). Darwin sought to show …
- … the award going to Darwin (see Correspondence vol. 12 Appendix IV). With the help of supporters …
- … details of the ensuing debate (see Correspondence vol. 12, Appendix IV) demonstrate how Darwin’s …

Results of the Darwin Online Emotions Experiment
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Thanks to all who took part in our online emotions experiment – over 18,000 of you! The formal stage of the experiment is now over, but it will be staying online as an activity, so if you don’t want to know the results, look away now. If you’d like to…
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- … crying, half laughing -16 seconds; crying from grief – 12 seconds; grief and despair – 8 seconds) …

Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
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The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
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- … [11 January 1844] ). Nine months later, in his letter of 12 October [1844], he explained to Jenyns: …

Visiting the Darwins
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'As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…' In October 1868 Jane Gray and her husband spent several days as guests of the Darwins, and Jane wrote a charming account of the visit in a sixteen-page letter to her sister. She described Charles…

Books on the Beagle
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The Beagle was a sort of floating library. Find out what Darwin and his shipmates read here.
Black Venus
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Sadiah Qureshi (University of Birmingham) on the film Vénus Noire (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2010) Sara Baartman has long been characterised as ‘Black Venus’, or ‘Vénus Noire’. The epithet encapsulates how her exploitation and objectification whilst alive…
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- … after 200 years’, Independent , 10 August 2002, p. 12. [2] Dream Hapmton, ‘Booming …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
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The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
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- … cruelty to animals, 1849 ( Statutes, public and general , 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92). 6 …