![Anne Elizabeth (Annie) Darwin Anne Elizabeth (Annie) Darwin](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/DARWIN-A-01-01203.jpg) Anne Elizabeth (Annie) Darwin Cambridge University Library
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child, Darwin persevered with his scientific work, single-mindedly committed to the completion of his barnacle research. His four-volume study was finally published after eight years of work. Darwin's professional circle was enlarged both by new friendships with noted scientists such as the physiologist Thomas Henry Huxley, and the American botanist Asa Gray, but also by contact with a network of animal breeders, nurserymen, and pigeon-fanciers.
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![Joseph Dalton Hooker Joseph Dalton Hooker](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/HOOKER-J-D-02-02357.jpg) Joseph Dalton Hooker, from the portrait by George Richmond, 1855 Cambridge University Library
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, travelling often to London and elsewhere to attend meetings and confer with colleagues, including the man who was to become his closest friend, Joseph Dalton Hooker. Down House was altered and extended to accommodate Darwin’s growing family; and, with his father’s advice, Darwin began a series of judicious financial investments to ensure a comfortable future for all those under his care.
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![Hall of Biodiversity, American Museum of Natural History Hall of Biodiversity, American Museum of Natural History](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Hall%20of%20Biodiversity.jpg) https://www.flickr.com/photos/ideonexus/2927381691/in/photostream/ Hall of Biodiversity, American Museum of Natural History
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 aesthetic, economic, and moral value came to be attached to the diversity of life on earth. The conference included a session on 'Darwin and evolutionary theory' involving past and present members of the Project.
We are grateful to the speakers for permission to make their talks available here. Read more
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