To A. S. Wilson 29 April [1878]
Summary
Thanks for specimen.
Always was sceptical of James Buckman’s experiment; heard afterwards that cruel trick was played on him.
Glad ASW is willing to look into Russian wheat case.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alexander Stephen Wilson |
| Date: | 29 Apr [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 365 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11489 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … see Correspondence vol. 11, letter from S. P. Woodward, 14 February 1863) . CD removed the …
- … letter to A. S. Wilson, 24 April 1878 . Wilson’s note has not been found. CD visited William Erasmus Darwin in Southampton from 27 April to 13 May 1878 (‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). James Buckman had been professor of geology and botany at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Gloucestershire; he retired in 1863. …
To A. C. Ramsay 3 November 1878
Summary
Thanks for ACR’s Physical geology [5th ed. (1878)]; delighted with its success, proving there is a large body of men in England capable of appreciating sound geological science.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Andrew Crombie Ramsay |
| Date: | 3 Nov 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 261.9: 10 (EH 88205983) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11735 |
To Asa Gray 15 August 1878
Summary
Climbing plants.
Requests seeds of Echinocystis lobata for Hugo de Vries.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 15 Aug 1878 |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (124) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11659 |
To Francis Darwin 25 July [1878]
Summary
Is forwarding the writing machine to Carl Semper.
Is glad FD has taken up his old friends, the twiners.
Hopes to get heliotropic aerial roots from J. D. Hooker. Asks FD to find out whether any moulds or roots are apheliotropic. Is puzzled by heliotropism in subterranean roots.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | 25 July [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 211: 40 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11631 |
To Thomas Meehan 13 May 1878
Summary
Criticises article by TM. "Such a manner of treating the work of other observers did not appear to me the way to encourage truth."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Meehan |
| Date: | 13 May 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 356 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11507 |
To ? 13 August 1878
Summary
Cannot help with correspondent’s study. CD has a poor ear for music. Recommends Helmholtz’s work.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 13 Aug 1878 |
| Classmark: | Houghton Library, Harvard University (Autograph File, D) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11655 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to which this is a reply has not been found. Hermann von Helmholtz had written on musical perception in Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik (The science of sound perception as the physiological basis for a theory of music; Helmholtz 1863 ). …
From R. T. Clarke 6 February [1878]
Summary
Sends curious, coloured pea seeds.
| Author: | Richard Trevor Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Feb [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 169 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10832 |
From W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 29 January 1878
Summary
Information on Cyclamen and other plants.
Identification of some plants.
"Bloom".
| Author: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 133.19: 10, 11, DAR 178: 102, DAR 209.4: 433–4, DAR 209.11: 258, 259, DAR 209.12: 88, Petit and Théodoridès 1959, pp. 210–11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11339 |
To Asa Gray 21 [and 22] January 1878
Summary
Thanks for AG’s review of Forms of flowers [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 15 (1878): 67–73].
Thomas Carlyle’s letter about CD was a forgery.
Gives Hermann Müller’s observations on Valeriana dioica.
Is unsure about function of "bloom"; are glaucous plants more or less common in arid parts of U. S.?
Observations on heliotropism.
Thomas Meehan reports that Linum perenne is self-fertile; CD thinks that he has mistaken the species.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 21 and 22 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (123 and 127) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11330 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from Asa Gray, 10 June 1877 . Thomas Meehan’s comments were in fact in a note in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club , December 1877, p. 189. There is a lightly annotated copy of the note in DAR 133.19: 37. See also Forms of flowers , pp. 90–8. Friedrich Hildebrand’s supporting evidence was in Hildebrand 1864 . Linum perenne is blue flax. Friedrich Alefeld’s remarks were in Alefeld 1863 , …
To John Price 10 February [1878]
Summary
Thanks JP for congratulations on LL.D. [awarded by Cambridge University].
Comments on Rudolf Virchow’s book [Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im modernen Staat (1877)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Price |
| Date: | 10 Feb [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 280 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11350 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to G. H. Darwin, 21 November [1877] and n. 4. Rudolf Carl Virchow had given the address Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im modernen Staat (The liberty of science in the modern state; Virchow 1877 ) to the Assembly of German Naturalists and Physicians at Munich on 22 September 1877. He argued that there was no room for speculative theories in the new German empire, only established scientific facts (see Weindling 1981 , pp. 118–20). Price was an opponent of evolutionary theories on the grounds of their speculative nature (see Price 1863– …
| letter | (10) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
| Clarke, R. T. | (1) |
| Thiselton-Dyer, W. T. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Meehan, Thomas | (1) |
| Price, John | (1) |
| Clarke, R. T. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Meehan, Thomas | (1) |
| Price, John | (1) |
| Ramsay, A. C. | (1) |
| Thiselton-Dyer, W. T. | (1) |
| Unidentified | (1) |
| Wilson, A. S. | (1) |
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: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
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: 1 hits
- … Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
Thomas Rivers
Summary
Rivers and Darwin exchanged around 30 letters, most in 1863 when Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript of Variation of plants and animals under domestication, the lengthy and detailed sequel to Origin of species. Rivers, an experienced plant breeder…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Project was contacted by the owner of an important Darwin letter that contains a rare instance …
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: 1 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book …
'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: 1 hits
- … The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma …
Dining at Down House
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's Domestic Life While Darwin is best remembered for his scientific accomplishments, he greatly valued and was strongly influenced by his domestic life. Darwin's…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's …
Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels …
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both …
Capturing Darwin’s voice: audio of selected letters
Summary
On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were very pleased to welcome Terry Molloy back to the Darwin Correspondence Project for a special recording session. Terry, known for his portrayal of Davros in Dr…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were …
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: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Darwin's health
Summary
On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend Joseph Hooker from Great Malvern in Worcestershire, where Dr James Manby Gully ran a fashionable water-cure establishment. Darwin apologised for his delayed reply to…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend …
Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments
Summary
The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but …
Inheritance
Summary
It was crucial to Darwin’s theories of species change that naturally occurring variations could be inherited. But at the time when he wrote Origin, he had no explanation for how inheritance worked – it was just obvious that it did. Darwin’s attempt to…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 'Hypotheses may often be of service to science, when they involve a certain portion of …
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,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific …
Climbing Plants
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A monograph by which to work After the publication of On the Origin of Species, Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, The Descent of Man, and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment A monograph by which to work …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
