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Darwin Correspondence Project

Universities

Letters as a primary source

Letters reveal much about the social and material practices of science. Discover the process of Darwin's knowledge making close up and the wide range of contributors with their different backgrounds, perspectives and agendas.

Getting to know Darwin's science

Developed at Harvard University, this Freshman course provides a taster of some of the major scientific areas that Darwin worked on. Explore barnacles to earthworms, biogeography to floral dimorphism, through selected letters and Darwin's own experiments.     

Darwin and human nature

These modules look at themes first reflected on by Darwin in his early private notebooks. The development of his ideas about moral nature and human progress are explored mainly through the correspondence surrounding Descent of Man

Women and science

Darwin’s correspondence sheds light on a group of women who participated in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Find out how these women made observations, conducted experiments, undertook fieldwork, and edited and criticised scientific texts.