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Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
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.…
3.6 William Darwin, photo 3
Summary
< Back to Introduction A photograph of Darwin apparently taken outdoors (he is seated on a chair but swathed in a cloak and rug) is undated and undocumented. It exists only as an unprinted collodion positive in the Darwin archive, strongly suggesting…
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,…
Climbing plants
Summary
Darwin’s book Climbing plants was published in 1865, but its gestation began much earlier. The start of Darwin’s work on the topic lay in his need, owing to severe bouts of illness in himself and his family, for diversions away from his much harder book on…
Matches: 5 hits
- … The next year brought no respite. At the end of January 1864, he told Hooker, ‘ The only approach …
- … of my facts on climbing’, he told Hooker in late February 1864, ‘ but I could not draw up a paper …
- … to write up the results of his recent work. By March 1864, Darwin was pursuing the question …
- … steadily revolves ’. Throughout May and early June 1864, Darwin expanded his work, asking friends …
- … receive new plants even as he reported at the end of August 1864, ‘ Thank Heaven I have finished …
Discussion Questions and Essay Questions
Summary
There are a wide range of possibilities for opening discussion and essay writing on Darwin’s correspondence. We have provided a set of sample discussion questions and essay questions, each of which focuses on a particular topic or correspondent in depth.…
Matches: 4 hits
- … did readers draw from Darwin’s theories?[Mary Boole (1864), F. E. Abbot (1871-4), John Fordyce (1879 …
- … [John Lubbock (1854-6), John Scott (1861-4), William Darwin (1864-6)] Who counted as a ‘real …
- … sexual dimorphism (1862), Fritz Müller and climbing plants (1864), Hermann Müller and the …
- … in letters? [Hooker on geographic distribution of species (1864--6 and earlier), Wallace on the …
2.3 Wedgwood medallions
Summary
< Back to Introduction Despite Darwin’s closeness to the Wedgwood family, he was studiously uninterested in the productions of his maternal grandfather Josiah Wedgwood I, the immensely successful ceramic manufacturer. In a letter to Hooker of January…
2.1 Thomas Woolner bust
Summary
< Back to Introduction Thomas Woolner’s marble bust of Darwin was the first portrayal of him that reflected an important transition in his status in the later 1860s. In the 1840s–1850s Darwin had been esteemed within scientific circles as one among…
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Copley medal
Summary
Darwin is finally, and controversially, awarded the Copley medal by the Royal Society
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- … Darwin is finally, and controversially, awarded the Copley medal by the Royal Society …
Climbing Plants
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A monograph by which to work After the publication of On the Origin of Species, Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, The Descent of Man, and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … journey of his climbing plants monograph: "In the autumn of 1864 I finished a long paper on …
Divergence
Summary
In a later account of how he had come to the evolutionary ideas published in Origin, Darwin wrote: 'Of all the minor points, the last which I appreciated was the importance & cause of the principle of Divergence' (to Ernst Haeckel, [after 10]…
Matches: 1 hits
- … (to Ernst Haeckel, [after 10] August – 8 October [1864]). Darwin set out to explain how …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … way of expressing 'natural selection' in the October 1864 instalment of Spencer’s …
Portraits of Charles Darwin: a catalogue
Summary
Compiled by Diana Donald The format of the catalogue Nineteenth-century portraits of Darwin are found in a very wide range of visual media. For the purposes of this catalogue, they have been divided into four broad categories, according to medium.…
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Despite the difficulties that arose in relation to Maull and Polyblank’s first photograph of Darwin, another one was produced, this time showing him in three-quarter view. It was evidently not taken at the same session as the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … edition of Origin , and received that taken by William in 1864. The perceived …
George Busk
Summary
After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until the material was sent, in 1852, for study by George Busk, one of the foremost workers on the group of his day. In 1863, on the way down to Malvern Wells, Darwin had…
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- … prestigious Copley Medal, news that was announced in 1864. Busk and his wife Ellen were part …
Proteus
Summary
Proteus is a bit of an Unidentified Film Object. A work that mixes documentary with animation, its subject is a scientist who walked a tight line between arts and sciences. Is the film a documentary or an artistic vision? As our guest speaker Nick Hopwood…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of feminine works.” (Haeckel to Darwin, 2 January 1864) Haeckel’s radiolarian …
Expression
Summary
Darwin's interest in emotional expression can be traced as far back as the Beagle voyage. He was fascinated by the different sounds and gestures among the peoples of Tierra del Fuego, and on his return from the voyage he started recording observations…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the project to a conclusion. At a particularly low point in 1864, he even offered all his material …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
