From Asa Gray 17 January 1865
Cambridge, Mass.
Jany, 17th. 1865.
Dear Darwin
Yours of 26th Dec. just received—long en route— must have crossed one from me,1—yet I am not sure.
Only the separate copy of your Lythrum paper came by the post,2 (& that I have not yet read), so I suppose I have lost Scott’s & Cruger’s papers.3 I am sorry that the Cuckoos are not more satisfactory.4 I wonder that my letter to Dr. Brewer has brought no response5
You are mistaken in thinking the Fish-men here (in U.S.) are all Agassizian. 6 I understand there is a perfect hatred between all of them, (Gill, Girard of Washington, & Ayres of California) and Agassiz.7 But I know nothing of the calibre of these people.
The new Herbm. building is finished & in occupation (costing Mr. Thayer $12250—in depreciated money, to be sure), and perfectly satisfactory. 8 But the supporting fund—small at best—lacks $1000 or so of being filled.— will come in time, and I hope more.— for I want a curator.9
People have much & many things to give for now. At present we are feeding Savannah—while the rebels are starving our men (prisoners) in the interior of the country.10
Do you not begin to believe that we shall put down the rebellion, restore the Union, and do away with Slavery?11
Heartily do I wish you a prosperous year, and continually improving health—& power to work—and less discomfort— Also—tho’ a small matter—I give you joy over the Copley Medal, which R.S. honors itself in giving to you.12
Ever | A. Gray
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Browne, Janet. 1995. Charles Darwin. Voyaging. Volume I of a biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Colp, Ralph, Jr. 1978. Charles Darwin: slavery and the American Civil War. Harvard Library Bulletin 26: 471–89.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Crüger, Hermann. 1864. A few notes on the fecundation of orchids and their morphology. [Read 3 March 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 127–35.
Denney, Robert E. 1992. The civil war years: a day-by-day chronicle of the life of a nation. New York: Sterling Publishing.
Dupree, Anderson Hunter. 1959. Asa Gray, 1810–1888. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Journal of researches 2d ed.: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. 2d edition, corrected, with additions. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1845.
Lurie, Edward. 1960. Louis Agassiz: a life in science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McPherson, James M. 1988. Battle cry of freedom: the Civil War era. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morris, Paul J. 1997. Louis Agassiz’s arguments against Darwinism in his additions to the French translation of the Essay on classification. Journal of the History of Biology 30: 121–34.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Origin 4th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 4th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1866.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
Winsor, Mary Pickard. 1979. Louis Agassiz and the species question. Studies in History of Biology 3: 89–117.
Winsor, Mary Pickard. 1991. Reading the shape of nature. Comparative zoology at the Agassiz museum. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Summary
New herbarium is finished.
Congratulations on Copley Medal.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4747
- From
- Asa Gray
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Cambridge, Mass.
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 146
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4747,” accessed on 20 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4747.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13