From George Howard Darwin [before 11 May 1863]
Summary
Notes, calculations, and diagrams on phyllotaxy.
| Author: | George Howard Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 11 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 51: 6–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3887 |
From J. D. Hooker [23–7 May 1863]
Summary
Encloses his notions [missing] on John Scott’s offer; some points in explanation.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [23–7 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 141–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4134 |
From Charles William Crocker 1[–4] May 1863
Summary
Observes Plantago’s out-crossing mechanism.
Observations of style lengths of primroses and cowslips.
| Author: | Charles William Crocker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1[–4] May 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 110: 28, DAR 161: 260 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4135 |
From W. E. Darwin 1 May [1863]
Summary
Discusses dimorphism in linum and primula. Describes death of Mrs. Ashworth.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 15) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4135F |
To Isaac Anderson-Henry 2 May [1863]
Summary
Convinced length of stamens has no relation to powers of fertilisation in many plants.
Suggests experiments on Pelargonium and Phlox.
Advises about use of microscope.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Isaac Anderson; Isaac Anderson Henry |
| Date: | 2 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 145: 3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4136 |
To John Scott 2 May [1863]
Summary
Impressed by JS’s attempts to fertilise Gongora.
CD has large collection of notes on orchids, but does not know when he will publish on them again.
Asks for JS’s papers on sterility of individual orchids and on Drosera.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Scott |
| Date: | 2 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: B25–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4137 |
From H. W. Bates 2 May [1863]
Summary
His satisfaction at CD’s acceptance of book as well as total public acceptance. Murray has given him a £250 advance. His pleasure at Asa Gray’s words.
Next task will be to write on origin [of species] by segregation of local races.
| Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 76 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4138 |
From W. E. Darwin 4 May [1863]
Summary
Sends observations on [Anchusa] plants from Isle of Wight.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 110: 62 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4139 |
From Charles and Emma Darwin to William Erasmus Darwin [4 May 1863]
Summary
Glad to hear of the plant; CD instructs WED to make further observations. If it is a good case he will insist on WED’s sending a communication to the Linnean Society.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin; Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [4 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 219.1: 55 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4139F |
To W. E. Darwin [5 May 1863]
Summary
Discusses dimorphic plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [5 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 110 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4140 |
From William Alexander Wooler 5 May 1863
Summary
Encloses plants derived from a cowslip–polyanthus cross.
| Author: | William Alexander Wooler |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 May 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 158 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4141 |
To Athenæum 5 May [1863]
Summary
Replies to a reviewer’s statement, that any theory of descent will connect large classes of facts, by pointing out that no other explanation has been as satisfactory as natural selection. But whatever view is adopted "signifies extremely little in comparison with the admission that species have descended from other species and have not been created immutable".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Athenæum |
| Date: | 5 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | Athenæum, 9 May 1863, p. 617 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4142 |
From A. C. Ramsay 6 May 1863
Summary
Glad CD likes his Presidential Address to Geological Society [1863].
Will continue the practice [of discussing the break in succession of strata].
Has devised a diagram showing number of genera and species in each geological formation and the number that pass from formation to formation.
Describes the glaciated terrain of S. Wales.
| Author: | Andrew Crombie Ramsay |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 May 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4143 |
From J. D. Hooker [7 May 1863]
Summary
Falconer going to France in defence of his views.
On scientific squabbling.
Herschel’s theory of the earth.
Bates’s book.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [7 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 135–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4144 |
To Charles Lyell [7 May 1863]
Summary
Falconer’s letter [attacking CL, Athenæum 4 Apr 1863, pp. 459–60] is most unjust.
Regrets his letter [to Athenæum, on heterogeny] now criticised by Owen.
Comments on article by Samuel Haughton [On the form of cells made by wasps – with an appendix on the origin of species (1863)].
Mentions forthcoming reviews by Asa Gray [in Am. J. Sci.].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [7 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 185: 46 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4145 |
From Isaac Anderson-Henry 7 May 1863
Summary
CD is right on heterostyly in Primula. High praise. Has confirmed it with Primula polyanthus.
| Author: | Isaac Anderson; Isaac Anderson Henry |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 May 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 66 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4146 |
From W. E. Darwin 8 May [1863]
Summary
Describes the structure of Corydalis and its arrangement for making pollen accessible to bees.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 May [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 76: B188–90 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4147 |
To George Snow 8 May 1863
Summary
Has pleasure in giving GS a testimonial for the office of surveyor for the Bromley District.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Snow |
| Date: | 8 May 1863 |
| Classmark: | Lawrences Auctioneers (dealers) (30 April – 2 May 2019, Lot 207) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4147F |
To J. D. Hooker [9 May 1863]
Summary
Lists the six honest believers in his species theory in England.
Asa Gray complains that Lyell acts like a judge on species, whereas CD complains of Lyell’s indecision.
CD working on divergence of leaves.
Distribution of Cameroon plants and the glacial theory.
Survival of island relics.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [9 May 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 192 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4148 |
From W. H. Flower 9 May 1863
Summary
Sends photos of the niata ox skull presented by CD.
| Author: | William Henry Flower |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 May 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 138 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4149 |
| Darwin, C. R. | (33) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Becker, L. E. | (4) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (4) |
| Scott, John | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (43) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Scott, John | (4) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (3) |
| Flower, W. H. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (76) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Scott, John | (8) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (7) |
| Becker, L. E. | (5) |
Wearing his knowledge lightly: From Fritz Müller, 5 April 1878
Summary
Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it’s hard to choose from many letters that stand out, but one of this editor’s favourites, that always brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5…
Matches: 1 hits
- … brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5 April 1878 . Müller was a German …
My most solemn request: To Emma Darwin, 5 July 1844
Summary
Alistair Sponsel talks about a touching letter Darwin sent to his wife Emma in 1844. Having just completed a sketch of his species theory, Darwin wrote detailed instructions about what to do with his manuscript in the event of his death.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Alistair Sponsel talks about a touching letter Darwin sent to his wife …
4.48 'Puck', cartoon 5
Summary
< Back to Introduction Following on from Reason Against Unreason and The Sun of the Nineteenth Century, another cartoon in the American humorous magazine Puck depicted Darwin as the epitome of philosophical enlightenment. The Universal Church of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Following on from Reason Against Unreason and The Sun of …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
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…
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 5 hits
- … appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). Piqued, Mivart flung …
- … accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I wanted some …
- … to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May 1872] ). Müller had sent him a …
- … myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May 1872] ). Finishing …
- … to me, which have ever been made’ ( letter to Mary Treat, 5 January 1872 ). In June, Lady …
Darwin's Fantastical Voyage
Summary
Learn about Darwin's adventures on his epic journey.
Matches: 1 hits
- … These activities explore Darwin’s life changing voyage aboard HMS Beagle. Using letters home, …
Detecting Darwin
Summary
Who was Charles Darwin? What is he famous for? Why is he still important?
Matches: 1 hits
- … Pupils act as Darwin detectives, exploring clues about Darwin’s life and work. No prior knowledge …
Language: Interview with Gregory Radick
Summary
Darwin made a famous comment about parallels between changes in language and species change. Gregory Radick, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds University, talks about the importance of the development of language to Darwin, what…
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 20 hits
- … (1) Austen, J. T. (5) Austin, A. D. …
- … H. (7) Ball, John (5) Ball, Robert …
- … (1) Beaufort, Francis (5) Becher, A. B. …
- … (8) Beneden, Édouard van (5) Bennet, C. A. (b) …
- … (1) Birch, Samuel (5) Birkett, Thomas …
- … (2) Boner, Charles (5) Bonham-Carter, Alice …
- … (2) Bookseller. (5) Boole, M. E. (3) …
- … (29) Brace, C. L. (5) Bradfield, Thomas …
- … (3) Canby, W. M. (5) Candolle, Alphonse de …
- … Carneri, Bartholomäus von (5) Carpenter, W. B. (19) …
- … (3) Clark, Andrew (5) Clark, J. W. (a) …
- … (2) Collingwood, Cuthbert (5) Colvile, J. W. …
- … (1) Cross, George (5) Cross, R. A. …
- … (4) Crotch, W. D. (5) Crowe, J. R. …
- … (1) Dew-Smith, A. G. (5) Dicey, A. V. …
- … (2) Doedes, N. D. (5) Dohrn, Anton …
- … (3) Drummond, James (a) (5) Drysdale, …
- … (3) Edmondston, Laurence (5) Edwards & …
- … (1) Edwards, Henry (5) Edwards, W. H. …
- … (3) Forchhammer, J. G. (5) Ford, G. H. …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 7 hits
- … as he put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863] . When Huxley’s book described …
- … mentor had not said a word ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] ). Darwin did …
- … for a fitting opportunity’ ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 5 [and 6] January [1863] ). …
- … been filled in the fossil record ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 5 [and 6] January [1863] ). Only until …
- … the Athenæum in response ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863] ). He later expressed …
- … honours like the Copley Medal ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863] ). Plants and …
- … reminder of their loss (see Correspondence vol. 5). Unable to find Annie’s gravestone in 1863, …
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 5 hits
- … in Danish (Morlot 1859, Forchhammer et al. 1851–5); Lubbock cited Morlot as the source of many …
- … work in the Brixham cave explorations of 1858 and 1859. 5 Another controversy arose when …
- … editions of Antiquity of man , see Grayson 1985. 5. For two interpretations of Hugh …
- … Correspondence vol. 11, letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] . On Lyell’s …
- … 1865 (University of Edinburgh, Lyell 1, Gen. 113: 3644–5). 17. Rough notes for letter …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … ... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some …
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
Matches: 5 hits
- … 1865 4 th English edition published, 1866 5 th English edition published, 1869 …
- … Joseph Hooker on the Arctic. 4 th to 5 th edition I have, …
- … von Nägeli, resulting in a substantial addition ( Origin 5 th ed, pp 151–3). Nägeli had …
- … of significant correspondents. 5 th to 6 th edition …
- … French edition which had already begun using the text of the 5 th English edition but had fallen …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Matches: 14 hits
- … account book (Down House MS) and Correspondence vol. 5, letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 April [1855 …
- … beauty in each leaf’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] ). Darwin’s aesthetic …
- … to which they belonged. In his letter to Hooker of 5 March [1863] , he announced that the plants …
- … by Darwin; these lists are in DAR 255: 8 and DAR 255: 2–5. The first is a list that Darwin …
- … plants sent to him by Hooker (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863] ), since many of the …
- … to Darwin from Kew. Darwin said in the letter to Hooker of 5 March [1863] that he had received …
- … Malpighia urens 5 …
- … —— speciosa 5 do. do. …
- … § Gongora atropurpurea 5 § Cyrtopodium Andersonii …
- … § —— maculata 5 —— punctata 10 …
- … Anoectochilus argenteus 12 5 s . § …
- … curassavica. 4. Canna Warszewiczii. 5. ‘speciosa’ deleted in pencil. 6. This …
- … 1863a, p. 10. See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] and n. 19. 9. …
- … aurantiaca 12. ‘Anoectochilus argenteus 5 s .’ deleted in ink. 13. ‘—— pictus 8 …
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
German poems presented to Darwin
Summary
Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…
Matches: 1 hits
- … gewidmete Gedichte sind dem Album besonders beigefügt. 5 Translation …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 3 hits
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … able to throw off thick dictionaries by flexing. On 5 April , Edward Blyth, who had supplied …
- … 3 June 1868 ). ‘It was very kind’, Darwin wrote on 5 June , ‘almost heroic, in you to sacrifice …
- … distributed it in Japan ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 5 September 1868 ); Edward Wilson, a neighbour …
- … Molendo and Alexander Walther addressed themselves on 5 August to ‘the Reformator of Natural …
- … had sent four letters the previous year, wrote again on 5 October , ‘I am quite distressed that …
