To W. W. Baxter 11 March 1882
Summary
Orders morphia pills in case of severe pain, which he hopes may never occur.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter |
| Date: | 11 Mar 1882 |
| Classmark: | Bromley Historic Collections, Bromley Central Library (Baxter Collection, 1136/1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13724 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Please mark’, have been written in by an unknown hand. Clark was CD’s physician. …
To G. H. Lewes 7 August [1868]
Summary
Thinks GHL’s articles are quite excellent; hopes they will be republished.
Discusses adaptation. Doubts whether similar conditions without selection can produce similar organs independent of blood relationship: "resemblances due to descent and adaptation can commonly be distinguished".
Discusses luminous insects, electrical organs of fish, thorns and spines.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Henry Lewes |
| Date: | 7 Aug [1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 185: 42; Argyll Papers, Inveraray Castle (NRAS 1209/985) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6308 |
From J. D. Hooker [6 December 1864]
Summary
Sabine’s address, printed in the Reader [4 (1864): 708–9], is good on the whole. Sends Huxley’s account of the row.
Praises John Ruskin’s eloquent reply to Jukes.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [6 Dec 1864] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 262–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4708 |
To J. D. Hooker 23 [June 1858]
Summary
Etty [Henrietta Darwin] very ill with diphtheria.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 23 [June 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 238 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2290 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … membrane. The condition was relatively unknown in Britain before the epidemic of 1857–8. …
From Edward Blyth [c. 22 March 1856]
Summary
Gives references to works on fowls and pigeons.
Observations on Gallinaceae.
Musk ox skull from southern England is additional evidence for Agassiz’s glacial period. Owen is mistaken in calling it a buffalo.
EB describes the buffalo proper.
Will send domestic pigeon specimens.
Believes pigeons were not bred in India before the Mohammedan conquest. Describes Indian breeds.
Believes the ass is an African rather than an Asian production. Discusses various species of ass and their distribution.
Wild horned cattle on borders of Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur.
[Notes received by CD on 6 May 1856.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. 22 Mar 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: 133–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1845 |
To William Kemp 7 April [1843]
Summary
CD will sent seeds to specialists for identification.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Kemp |
| Date: | 7 Apr [1843] |
| Classmark: | Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 10252/14) (gift of Ruth Cramond and David Cramond) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-667F |
From Francis Darwin [12 July 1878]
Summary
Chlorophyll development in oat seedling.
Lists the sleeping plants he has seen.
Julius Sachs thinks Hugo de Vries has not cleared up everything [about climbing plants]. But Sachs has not worked on the mechanical problem.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [12 July 1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 209.1: 156–7, DAR 209.14: 88 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11604 |
From Charles Lyell 19 June 1860
Summary
Sees Huxley’s deification of matter and force as a reaction to the way Paley likened the "Unknown Cause" to the mind of man so that new causes could be introduced. If you wish to retain free will which is inconsistent with constant law, Paley’s position is better. Free will is a recently introduced cause on our planet. It cannot be fully attributed to secondary causes.
What CD says about the variation in gestation of the hound is remarkable.
The astonishing fertile rabbit–hare hybrids encourage belief in Pallas’s theory of the multiple origin of dogs.
Does the regularity of gestation in man indicate a common stock?
Hooker’s observation of absence of forms peculiar to extra-Arctic Greenland indicates that the time since the beginning of the glacial period is brief in geological terms.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 June 1860 |
| Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 117–23) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2837A |
To Francis Darwin [before 5 June 1879]
Summary
Believes that he will prove that the tip of radicle is the brain as far as geotropism is concerned.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | [before 5 June 1879] |
| Classmark: | DAR 211: 53 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12084 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … pointed vertically downwards & one for some unknown reason was not acted on. — I showed …
From Edward Caldwell Rye 14 February 1870
Summary
Draws CD’s attention to a paper by Maurice Girard containing observations on the fertilisation of Orchidaceae by two species of Longicornia [Ann. Soc. Entomol. France 9 (1869): xxxi–xxxii].
| Author: | Edward Caldwell Rye |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Feb 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 228 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7106 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … my writing thus, although
〈 pers〉 onally unknown to you. My connection〈 with M r .〉 G. …
From George Grey 10 May 1846
Summary
Returns letter from CD to J. L. Stokes [see 940 and 1030].
| Author: | George Grey |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 May 1846 |
| Classmark: | DAR 144: 121c |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-979 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … whence it was forwarded to Grey by someone unknown, see CD’s letter to J. L. Stokes, [ c. …
From Edward Blyth [after 24 February 1867]
Summary
Sexual differences in bird species and seasonal variation in plumage.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 24 Feb 1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 84.1: 105–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6403 |
To Henry Potonié 20 April 1878
Summary
Thanks for information [about early evolutionary views of Alexander Braun].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Potonié |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 249a |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11480 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … The views of your great Botanist was unknown to me. Should I again correct the “Origin” I …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 18 February [1857]
Summary
Has some fowls from Sir James Brooke, which WBT might like to display at Zoological Society.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 18 Feb [1857] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2054 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … one crested, & some frizzled Fowls of unknown origin procured at Singapore. They are …
To Arthur Nicols [20 March 1873]
Summary
Responds to AN’s observations on sense of smell in cats and dogs.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Arthur (Arthur) Nicols |
| Date: | [20 Mar 1873] |
| Classmark: | Nicols 1885, p. 52 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8817G |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the stories of cats returning home over unknown ground; but if such a case is mentioned in …
To ? 18 July [1873?]
Summary
Comments on ability of recipient to move his scalp.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 18 July [1873?] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.430) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8982 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … conjectured from a note on the letter in an unknown hand. The notepaper, with the address …
From W. H. Harvey 8 October 1860
Summary
Thanks CD for his patience and good-nature; does not want a controversial correspondence but wishes to reply to matters in CD’s letter, and does.
| Author: | William Henry Harvey |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Oct 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98 (ser. 2): 54–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2943 |
From J. D. Hooker 24 June 1849
Summary
Pleasure at receiving CD’s scientific letters to JDH and Hodgson.
The H. Wedgwoods’ pecuniary loss.
Condolences at CD’s father’s death.
Rajah harasses JDH’s work. Lack of supplies, rain, malarial valleys, and landslips make going difficult. Cannot get into Tibet.
"Twenty species [of plants] here [Camp Sikkim] to one there [Tierra del Fuego?] always are asking me the vexed question, ""where do we come from?""."
From observation of terraces descending to steppes and plains of India, he thinks that the Himalayas were once a grand fiord coast.
Has information CD requested on Yangsma valley. JDH’s detailed hypothesis of origin of dam there. Does not agree with CD’s interpretation.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 June 1849 |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (India letters 1847–51: 187–8 JDH/1/10) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1247 |
From Roland Trimen 16 March 1863
Summary
RT has sent his observations on orchids to CD. Has found only one case of an insect with a pollinium adhering to it.
| Author: | Roland Trimen |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Mar 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 70: 180, DAR 178: 184 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4046 |
To G. H. Darwin 30 May [1880]
Summary
Discusses GHD’s genealogical researches
and his health.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Howard Darwin |
| Date: | 30 May [1880] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.1: 93 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12619 |
| letter | (391) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (184) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (22) |
| Blyth, Edward | (16) |
| Darwin, Francis | (7) |
| Lyell, Charles | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (207) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (20) |
| Lyell, Charles | (14) |
| Unidentified | (8) |
| Darwin, G. H. | (6) |
| 1828 | (2) |
| 1831 | (3) |
| 1832 | (3) |
| 1833 | (1) |
| 1834 | (6) |
| 1835 | (2) |
| 1836 | (2) |
| 1837 | (1) |
| 1838 | (2) |
| 1839 | (1) |
| 1840 | (1) |
| 1841 | (1) |
| 1842 | (1) |
| 1843 | (4) |
| 1844 | (5) |
| 1845 | (5) |
| 1846 | (3) |
| 1847 | (5) |
| 1848 | (6) |
| 1849 | (5) |
| 1850 | (6) |
| 1851 | (1) |
| 1853 | (2) |
| 1855 | (13) |
| 1856 | (16) |
| 1857 | (6) |
| 1858 | (6) |
| 1859 | (8) |
| 1860 | (17) |
| 1861 | (15) |
| 1862 | (18) |
| 1863 | (18) |
| 1864 | (6) |
| 1865 | (6) |
| 1866 | (7) |
| 1867 | (12) |
| 1868 | (20) |
| 1869 | (12) |
| 1870 | (5) |
| 1871 | (15) |
| 1872 | (12) |
| 1873 | (10) |
| 1874 | (9) |
| 1875 | (13) |
| 1876 | (7) |
| 1877 | (12) |
| 1878 | (20) |
| 1879 | (16) |
| 1880 | (9) |
| 1881 | (13) |
| 1882 | (2) |
4.49 Alfred Bryan, caricature
Summary
< Back to Introduction Among the portrayals of Darwin reproduced in Bridgeman Images is a caricature titled Natural History Repeating Itself, from an unnamed private collection. It is initialled by ‘A.B.’, i.e. Alfred Bryan, who worked as an…
4.26 Christmas card caricature, monkeys
Summary
< Back to Introduction Sem’s Christmas card with a caricature of Darwin was not the only thing of its kind. A sale catalogue of 2009, Charles Robert Darwin . . . One Hundred and Two Items, included the front leaf of a greetings card inscribed in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … venerable monkey-ancestor. physical location unknown accession or …
4.57 silhouette cartoon
Summary
< Back to Introduction A strange double silhouette caricature found its way into the Darwin family collection in the 1930s. Darwin’s outsize caricatured head is attached to the body of a monkey with a long tail, which has a demonic appearance. He…
2.2 Thomas Woolner metal plaque
Summary
< Back to Introduction In Benedict Read’s account of the work of Thomas Woolner in Pre-Raphaelite Sculpture, there is a reference to a ‘bronze medallion of Darwin . . . catalogued in Woolner’s studio in February 1913 (lot 123), which was presumably…
Matches: 1 hits
- … by the Wedgwood firm? physical location unknown accession or collection …
4.58 'Simian, savage' . . . drawings
Summary
< Back to Introduction An anonymous satire in the Darwin archive has been descriptively titled ‘Simian, savage and savant’. Darwin on the right, elegantly dressed and carrying a top hat, represents the acme of civilisation. The central, nearly naked,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … University Library originator(s) of images unknown; one of the wash drawings is signed …
2.21 Montford, relief at Christ's College
Summary
< Back to Introduction An oval bronze plaque with a relief portrait of Darwin by Horace Montford is at Christ’s College, Cambridge, the college where Darwin had been an undergraduate. It is likely to have been based on one of the many photographs of…
4.50 Cigar box lid design
Summary
< Back to Introduction A brightly coloured chromolithograph with a portrait of Darwin was intended to decorate the inside of a cigar box lid. It comes from a book of sample designs carried by a cigar salesman, and can be dated to the late 1880s or…
1.13 Louisa Nash, drawing
Summary
< Back to Introduction This sketch portrait of Darwin was drawn by Louisa A‘hmuty Nash as a memento of her friendship with the Darwin family and a token of her unbounded admiration and affection for Darwin himself. She and her husband, the lawyer…
3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
Summary
< Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific locale that a family photograph of him riding his horse Tommy takes on a special interest. He is at the front of Down House, the door of which is open; it seems as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Library originator of image unknown: assumed to be Leonard Darwin …
2.18 Montford, Carnegie bust
Summary
< Back to Introduction In 1901 the immensely rich steel manufacturer and business magnate Andrew Carnegie commissioned Horace Montford for two bronze busts of Darwin. The exact circumstances of the commission are unknown, but Carnegie must have been…
4.37 'Mosquito' satire
Summary
< Back to Introduction The Buenos Aires satirical journal Mosquito published this cartoon in May 1882, shortly after Darwin’s death, with the title ‘El Homenage a Darwin en el Teatro Nacional’ (The tribute to Darwin in the National Theatre). A…
4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year lecture tour of Britain, sent Darwin a copy of his book, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, Physiognomy Illustrated. He was seeking a public…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Library originator of image unknown engraver, after a photograph by Elliott …
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … prejudice in Descent of man . In a letter from an unknown correspondent on 13 June 1877 , he …
4.12 'Fun', Wedding procession
Summary
< Back to Introduction ‘The wedding procession’ appeared in Fun magazine on March 25, 1871, and contained an amusing echo of the cartoon representing Darwin as ‘A venerable orang-outang’ that had appeared in the Hornet a few days earlier. The…
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…
4.19 George Montbard, caricature
Summary
< Back to Introduction In this watercolour drawing by Charles Auguste Loye, who called himself George Montbard, Darwin is in a ‘Gallery of ancestors’. He is improbably pictured as a connoisseur in a sleek cut-away tail coat, training his lorgnette on…
Matches: 1 hits
- … at lower left) date of creation unknown (1870s?) computer-readable date …
4.32 Anis liqueur label
Summary
< Back to Introduction Many late-nineteenth-century cartoons played on the popular association of Darwin with theories about humans’ simian ancestry: theories that challenged traditional religious beliefs. However, it is surprising to find an…
Matches: 1 hits
- … holder Marti Dominguez originator of image unknown artist working for the Bosch family …
4.36 Sem, Chistmas card
Summary
< Back to Introduction An unattributed watercolour drawing of Darwin shows him dapperly dressed in a tail coat, but walking on all fours like an animal, his lean figure bent over in an arch and filling the space. It is inscribed ‘With Compliments of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to Frederick Sem date of creation unknown; probably late 1870s or c.1880-1 …
4.55 Harry Furniss caricature
Summary
< Back to Introduction Harry Furniss’s caricature of Darwin is in a set of seventy-two pen and ink drawings by this artist now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. They were acquired in 1947-8 from Theodore Cluse, who, acting…
4.2 Augustus Earle, caricature drawing
Summary
< Back to Introduction The paucity of evidence for Darwin’s appearance and general demeanour during the years of the Beagle voyage gives this humorous drawing of shipboard life a special interest. It is convincingly attributed to Augustus Earle, an…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the watercolour, and what happened to it subsequently, are unknown. Janet Browne has suggested that …
