skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

From C. T. E. von Siebold1   10 October 1877

München

den 1010 77.

Hochgeehrtester Herr!

In der Anlage erlaube ich mir die Photographien einer haarigen Familie zukommen zu lassen, mit dem Wunsche, dass Sie dieselben mit Nachsicht aufnehmen möchten.2 Die betreffenden Oelgemälde, als ich die Erlaubniss erhielt, dieselben photographiren lassen zu dürfen, befanden sich bereits in einem sehr vernachlässigten Zustand; dennoch freute ich mich, dass es mir gelungen war, bei dieser Gelegenheit diese merkwürdigen Porträts ihrem gänzlichen Untergang zu entziehen.

Ueber die Abkunft und über das Leben dieser haarigen Familie habe ich durchaus nichts zuverlässiges erfahren können, wie Sie Sich aus meinem Bericht überzeugen werden, den ich als Separatabdruck aus dem Archiv für Anthropologie (Bd. X. 1877) mit einigen anderen Separatabdrücken heute ebenfalls durch die Post an Sie habe abgehen lassen.3

Unter diesen genannten Drucksachen befindet sich auch eine Briefreihe, welche mein zu früh verstorbener sehr talentvoller Schüler Rud. von Willemoes-Suhm von Challenger aus an mich gerichtet hat.4 Wenn Sie, hochgeehrtester Herr, diesen liebenswürdigen, mit einem seltenen Forschertalent begabten jungen Mann persönlich gekannt hätten, würden Sie gewiss den Schmerz begreifen, mit welchem ich den Verlust dieses meines besten Schülers fortwährend bedauern muss.

In ausgezeichneter Hochachtung Ihr ganz ergebenster | Carl v. Siebold.

CD annotations

3.1 welche … hat. 3.3] scored red crayon

Footnotes

For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.
There are photographs of the four portraits of the Gonzales family that hang in Ambras Castle, Innsbruck, Austria, in DAR 53.1: C7, 8, 9, 10. They show the hairy father, Petrus Gonzales, non-hairy mother, Catherine, a hairy son, Enrico, and a hairy daughter, Maddalena (Wiesner-Hanks 2009, pp. 6, 76, 115). The portraits are now in the cabinet of curiosities at Ambras Castle (ibid., pp. 5, 78).
An offprint of Siebold’s article on the hairy Gonzales family (Siebold 1877) is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL, along with eight other papers by Siebold. Petrus Gonzales and some of his children were examined by medical men and natural philosophers, as well as being sought after as curiosities in the courts of Europe, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Wiesner-Hanks 2009, pp. 4–5, 183–221).
Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm was a naturalist on the Challenger expedition; he worked on the crustaceans discovered during the voyage. He died in September 1875, during the journey from Hawaii to Tahiti. Willemoes-Suhm had studied zoology at Munich under Siebold. The series of letters to Siebold describing the Challenger voyage were published between 1874 and 1877 (Willemoes-Suhm 1874–7).

Bibliography

Siebold, Carl Theodor von. 1877. Die haarige Familie von Ambras. Archiv für Anthropologie 10 (1878): 253–60.

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. 2009. The marvelous hairy girls: the Gonzales sisters and their worlds. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Willemoes-Suhm, Rudolf von. 1874–7. Von der Challenger-Expedition. Briefe an C. Th. E. v. Siebold. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie 24 (1874): ix–xxiii; 25 (1875): xxv–xlvi; 26 (1876): xlvii–lviii, lix–lxxv, lxxvii–xci; 27 (1876): xcvii–cviii; 29 (1877): cix–cxxxv.

Translation

From C. T. E. von Siebold1   10 October 1877

Munich

on 1010 77.

Most esteemed Sir!

Enclosed I allow myself to send you the photographs of a hairy family, in the hope that you will receive it with some forbearance.2 The original paintings, when I got permission to have them photographed, were already in a much neglected condition. All the same, I am pleased that on this occasion I was able to ensure that these peculiar portraits would not be altogether destroyed.

Regarding the ancestry and the life of this hairy family, I was unable to find out anything reliable, as you can convince yourself from my report, which, in the form of an offprint from the Archiv für Anthropologie (vol. X. 1877), I have posted to you together with a number of other offprints today.3

Among the printed matter is also a series of letters that my very talented pupil Rud. von Willemoes-Suhm, who died too young, addressed to me from the Challenger.4 If you, most esteemed Sir, had personally known this young man, who had such a rare talent for research, you surely would comprehend the pain with which I must for ever grieve over the loss of my best pupil.

With the greatest respect Yours wholly devoted | Carl v. Siebold.

Footnotes

For a transcription of this letter in its original German, see Transcript.
There are photographs of the four portraits of the Gonzales family that hang in Ambras Castle, Innsbruck, Austria, in DAR 53.1: C7, 8, 9, 10. They show the hairy father, Petrus Gonzales, non-hairy mother, Catherine, a hairy son, Enrico, and a hairy daughter, Maddalena (Wiesner-Hanks 2009, pp. 6, 76, 115). The portraits are now in the cabinet of curiosities at Ambras Castle (ibid., pp. 5, 78).
An offprint of Siebold’s article on the hairy Gonzales family (Siebold 1877) is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL, along with eight other papers by Siebold. Petrus Gonzales and some of his children were examined by medical men and natural philosophers, as well as being sought after as curiosities in the courts of Europe, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Wiesner-Hanks 2009, pp. 4–5, 183–221).
Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm was a naturalist on the Challenger expedition; he worked on the crustaceans discovered during the voyage. He died in September 1875, during the journey from Hawaii to Tahiti. Willemoes-Suhm had studied zoology at Munich under Siebold. The series of letters to Siebold describing the Challenger voyage were published between 1874 and 1877 (Willemoes-Suhm 1874–7).

Bibliography

Siebold, Carl Theodor von. 1877. Die haarige Familie von Ambras. Archiv für Anthropologie 10 (1878): 253–60.

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. 2009. The marvelous hairy girls: the Gonzales sisters and their worlds. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Willemoes-Suhm, Rudolf von. 1874–7. Von der Challenger-Expedition. Briefe an C. Th. E. v. Siebold. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie 24 (1874): ix–xxiii; 25 (1875): xxv–xlvi; 26 (1876): xlvii–lviii, lix–lxxv, lxxvii–xci; 27 (1876): xcvii–cviii; 29 (1877): cix–cxxxv.

Summary

Sends article and photograph of abnormally hairy family.

Mentions death of his student, Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11175
From
Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Munich
Source of text
DAR 177: 160
Physical description
ALS 2pp (German) †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11175,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11175.xml

letter