To [W. W. Baxter?] [after June 1857]
Summary
Requests a quart of distilled water for photography to be sent in a clean bottle via the postman on the following day.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter |
| Date: | [after June 1857] |
| Classmark: | Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (Archives, Autograph Letters and Manuscripts Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13889F |
From Edward Hewitt 18 December 1857
Summary
Hybrid varieties of pheasant and common fowl. Reply to CD queries.
| Author: | Edward Hewitt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Dec 1857 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 196 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1614 |
To W. E. Darwin [before 11 September 1857]
Summary
Writes of the extension to Down House.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [before 11 Sept 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 17 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1619 |
To W. E. Darwin [17 February 1857]
Summary
Is glad WED is in the sixth [form]. Discusses WED’s intention to become a barrister.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [17 Feb 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1805 |
To John Innes [after 16 February 1857]
Summary
Recommends he read passages on bees by C. T. E. von Siebold [in On the true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
| Date: | [after 16 Feb 1857] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.149) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2025 |
To [W. E. Darwin] [1857?]
Summary
Will be grateful for facts from Mr Linton on numbers of eggs from goldfinch–canary crosses.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [1857?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 187 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2029 |
To Henry Doubleday [before 5 February 1857]
Summary
Have all varieties been bred from the same set of eggs so that there can be no doubt they are all the same species?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Doubleday |
| Date: | [before 5 Feb 1857] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2032 |
To J. D. Hooker [after 20 January 1857]
Summary
CD finds Alphonse de Candolle very useful, though JDH has low opinion.
CD argues for accidental introductions explaining some odd distributions, e.g., New Zealand vs Australian plants.
CD’s method.
Diverging affinities in isolated genera.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [after 20 Jan 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 190 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2033 |
To Asa Gray 1 January [1857]
Summary
Thanks AG for 2d part of "Statistics [of the flora of the northern U. S.", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 22 (1856): 204–32; 2d ser. 23 (1857): 62–84, 369–403].
Is glad AG concludes species of large genera are wide-ranging, but is "riled" that he thinks the line of connection of alpine plants is through Greenland. Mentions comparisons of ranges worth investigating.
Believes trees show a tendency toward separation of the sexes and wonders if U. S. species bear this out. Asks which genera are protean in U. S.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 1 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2034 |
From William Henry Harvey 3 January 1857
Summary
Sexes of algae.
| Author: | William Henry Harvey |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Jan 1857 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 115 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2035 |
To T. H. Huxley 4 January [1857]
Summary
Congratulations [on Mrs H’s delivery].
Balanus balanoides positively identified by CD.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 4 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 48) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2037 |
To Henry Doubleday 8 January [1857]
Summary
Thanks for a kind note, and asks not to answer until better.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Doubleday |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | Dr Heather Whitney (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2037F |
To W. H. Harvey 7 January [1857]
Summary
Thanks for information, which is just the amount he wanted.
Will not go to the BAAS meeting in Dublin: the frightful voyage deters him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Henry Harvey |
| Date: | 7 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | Sheffield City Archives (Gatty family autograph albums X561/1/1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2037G |
From Richard Hill 10 January 1857
Summary
Will attend to any subject in Jamaica about which CD wants information.
Crithagra brasiliensis and canary refused to pair.
A collection of Jamaican land Mollusca will be presented to the British Museum.
Hurricanes are a considerable influence on diffusion of birds and insects.
| Author: | Richard Hill |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Jan 1857 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 237 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2038 |
From Charles Lyell [16 January 1857]
Summary
Enumerates fossil mammals known in Secondary strata.
Lack of angiosperm plants in rocks older than Chalk is no reason to anticipate rarity of warm-blooded quadrupeds.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [16 Jan 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 394 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2039 |
To J. D. Hooker 17 January [1857]
Summary
CD will advise W. F. Daniell on collecting.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 17 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 188 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2040 |
To T. H. Huxley 17 January [1857]
Summary
Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.
CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 17 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 261.8: 1 (EH 88205939) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2041 |
To J. D. Hooker 20 January [1857]
Summary
CD will advise Daniell not to apply for Royal Society grant.
CD’s experiment: fish fed seeds, which germinated when voided.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 20 Jan [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 189 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2042 |
From Henry Doubleday 26 January 1857
Summary
Sends specimens of Tortrix, which illustrate the extraordinary variation of markings in two or three species. In every family of Lepidoptera there seem to be species extremely prone to vary and in some localities they vary more than in others.
| Author: | Henry Doubleday |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Jan 1857 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 235 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2044 |
To T. H. Huxley 3 February [1857]
Summary
Thanks THH for his response on glacial movement. Hopes Tyndall will experiment on broken ice and explain how two pieces of ice can freeze together.
Sorry to hear of THH’s row with Richard Owen.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 3 Feb [1857] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 104) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2045 |
| letter | (183) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (47) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (31) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (13) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (10) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (8) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (179) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (36) |
| Gray, Asa | (13) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (13) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (12) |
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 11 hits
- … of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed aspects of …
- … as ever I can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] ). Darwin also attempted to test …
- … the alpine plants pretty effectually’ complained Darwin in 1857 ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 May …
- … of calculation was wrong ( letter to John Lubbock, 14 July [1857] ). Darwin thought his results …
- … experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden vegetables like …
- … Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette in October 1857, to be followed by a second notice in 1858. …
- … find the work: am I not a kind Father?’ Darwin wrote in 1857, soon followed by the complaint ‘You …
- … to end!’ (letters to W. E. Darwin, [17 February 1857] and 21 [July 1857] ). The problem of …
- … of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and hardly the veiled …
- … are all vividly displayed in Darwin's letters. By the end of 1857, Darwin was well on the way …
- … long letter to Asa Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] ). From this letter it is evident …
Darwin and Down
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842. The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow. The village combined the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … was in Darwin’s day. To J. D. Hooker, 3 June [1857] : on the struggle for existence in …
Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 2070: Wedgwood, Hensleigh to Darwin, C. R., [before 29 Sept 1857] Darwin’s brother-in-law, …
Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Matches: 3 hits
- … natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same …
- … to Prof. Asa Gray, Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5th, 1857.” (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). …
- … was sent to A. Gray 8 or 9 months ago, I think October 1857 [‘or perhaps’ del ]’. The printed …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 4 hits
- … the Origin of Species…’ FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: 1857-1858 In which Gray and Hooker …
- … JUNE 1855 20 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 21 A GRAY TO C DARWIN, …
- … MARCH 1862 35 C DARWIN TO A GRAY, 1 JANUARY 1857 36 A GRAY TO C DARWIN …
- … OCTOBER 1858 59 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, 12 OCTOBER 1857 60 A GRAY TO JD HOOKER, …
The "wicked book": Origin at 157
Summary
Origin is 157 years old. (Probably) the most famous book in science was published on 24 November 1859. To celebrate we have uploaded hundreds of new images of letters, bringing the total number you can look at here to over 9000 representing more than…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ’s appearance, but there is a fascinating scrap from 1857 comparing his views on species to …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
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…
Matches: 3 hits
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I
Summary
Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared. Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…
Matches: 1 hits
- … written in 1842 , and, as he told Asa Gray in September 1857 , he intended to call the ‘ big …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 7 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … 4 26 January 1857 Variation under nature (DAR 9; …
- … 5 3 March 1857 The struggle for existence as bearing on …
- … 6 31 March 1857 On natural selection (DAR 10.2; …
- … 7 29 September 1857 Laws of variation: varieties & …
- … 8 29 September 1857 Difficulties on the theory of …
- … 9 29 December 1857 Hybridism (DAR 12; Natural …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of other cells. (Letter from G. R. Waterhouse, 14 April 1857 .) In a later letter …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 3 hits
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 7 hits
- … ago’, he wrote to the American botanist Asa Gray in July 1857, it occurred to me that …
- … staggered about the permanence of species.— By 1857, Darwin had found the confidence to …
- … And this much acceleration I owe to you. ’ In February 1857, the rate of this acceleration was …
- … the way facts fall into groups ’, he told Fox in February 1857. Trials of strength …
- … in theory of the descent of species ’. In December 1857, Darwin had expressed his satisfaction that …
- … there is no good & original observation ’. In 1857, Darwin recorded in his journal that …
- … varieties differ from each other’, he told Wallace in May 1857, before stating ‘ I am now preparing …
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 3 hits
- … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
- … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
- … with an abstract of his views sent to Asa Gray in September 1857. The correspondence between Darwin, …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 21 hits
- … 112 Jukes. “Students Manual of Geology” [Jukes 1857]— published a few years ago, good on …
- … Lucas l’Heredite Naturelle [Lucas 1847–50] 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami …
- … Thackeray English Humourists [Thackeray 1853] 1857 Jan. Cockburn life of Selby [ …
- … 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6]: Quits [Tautphoeus] 1857] 29 Lutfullah. Life of …
- … Marsh] 1858] Buckle History of Civilisation [Buckle 1857] Feb. 28 Sir J. Mackintosh …
- … Oct. 22. Olmstead Journey through Texas [Olmsted 1857] Dec. Motley’s History of Dutch …
- … 1853]— Aug.— Sherard Osborne’s Quedah [Osborn 1857] d[itt]o d[itt]o Arctic Journal …
- … Harris 1842] Jukes Student Manual of Geology [Jukes 1857] Azara’s Quadrupeds [Azara …
- … *119: 18v.; 119: 8a, 21a Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857. History of civilization in …
- … 21v., 22; 119: 19a Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. 1857. The life of Charlotte Brontë . …
- … [Abstract in DAR 205.3: 138.] 119: 20a ——. 1857. The student’s manual of geology. …
- … [Other eds.] *119: 15v. Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary travels and researches …
- … 3 vols. Vivay. [Other eds.] *119: 22 Lutfullah. 1857. Autobiography of Lutfullah: a …
- … *119: 23; 128: 5 Napier, William Francis Patrick. 1857. The life and opinions of General …
- … of Elgin’s mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, 1858, 1859 . 2 vols. Edinburgh and …
- … on their economy . New York. 128: 25 ——. 1857. A journey through Texas; or, a winter …
- … an Arctic journal\. London. 128: 25 ——. 1857. Quedah; or, stray leaves from a journal …
- … Rouvroy, Louis de, Duke de Saint-Simon Vermandois. 1857. The memoirs of the Duke of Saint Simon on …
- … [Other eds.] *119: 1v.; 119: 12a Smiles, Samuel. 1857. The life of George Stephenson, …
- … New York. *128: 178 [Tautphoeus, Jemima von]. 1857. Quits; a novel . 3 vols. London. …
- … . Edited by J. C. Morris. Madras. 1833–51. Second series, 1857–. [Abstract in DAR 74: 177.] *119: …
