From Asa Gray 10 June 1877
Summary
Has two young friends who wish to call on CD.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 June 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 197 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10994 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Has two young friends who wish to call on CD. …
- … the family of Charles Norton, who were friends of the Grays from Boston, Massachusetts, CD …
- … has just married the daughter of my dear old friend, the late Mr. Sullivant, who did for …
- … The young lady is very dear to your good friend Mrs. Gray and to me; and, as you have …
- … instances. But, please, do not give our young friends the opportunity of calling upon you, …
To Asa Gray 15 August [1868]
Summary
AG’s coming visit to England.
Hooker’s Presidency of BAAS.
A month at the Isle of Wight has done almost nothing for CD.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 15 Aug [1868] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (98) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6316 |
From Asa Gray 11 July 1864
Summary
Discusses CD’s and Mrs Gray’s health.
Comments on some climbing plants.
Praises Wallace’s article applying natural selection to man ["The origin of human races", J. Anthropol. Soc. Lond. 2 (1864): clviii–clxxxvi].
Discusses the reported sterility of the flowers of Voandzeia and Amphicarpaea.
Feels the ending of slavery is worth the cost of the Civil War.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 July 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 143, DAR 111: A82 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4558 |
From Charles Wright to Asa Gray 20, 25, and 26 March and 1 April 1864
Summary
Describes the flower and mode of action of a particular orchid.
Has been examining Spiranthes and is experimenting to see whether insects are necessary for its fertilisation.
It seems that Oncidium is designed so as not to be fertilised.
| Author: | Charles Wright |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 20, 25 and 26 Mar 1864 and 1 Apr 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 163 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4433 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … afford to spend a few months visiting my friends & equipping myself anew for another two …
- … 25th. I didnt go to the coast. Our fisher friend sent word that he had sickness in his …
- … living at Retiro, a property of his friend José Blain’s in Pinar del Rio, the westernmost …
- … Christoph (Juan Cristóbal) Gundlach, a friend of Wright’s, was a well-known naturalist in …
- … flesh being prohibited) & a neighbor of friend Blain goes to improve the fiesta and make a …
To Asa Gray 3 July [1860]
Summary
Origin has "stirred up the mud with a vengeance"; AG and three or four others have saved CD from annihilation and are responsible for the attention now given to the subject. Reports events at Oxford BAAS meeting.
New evidence supports AG’s view of a warm post-glacial period.
Discusses his recent orchid observations.
Poses AG a question on design in nature.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 3 July [1860] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (41) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2855 |
From Asa Gray to J. D. Hooker 5 January 1860
Summary
Opinions on the Origin: AG thinks it masterly; Agassiz considers it very poor.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 Jan 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98 (ser. 2): 20–1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2638 |
To Asa Gray 25 February [1864]
Summary
Has not worked for six months due to illness.
Has been looking at climbing plants.
Hermann Crüger’s paper shows that CD was right about Catasetum pollination. Crüger’s account of pollination of Coryanthes "beats everything".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 25 Feb [1864] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (80) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4415 |
From Asa Gray [early August 1856]
Summary
Believes intermediate varieties are generally less numerous in individuals than the two states that they connect.
Discusses the difficulties of deciding what is the typical form of a species
and gives some opinions on the variability of introduced species compared with indigenous species.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [early Aug 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 93 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1934 |
From Asa Gray 6 November [1866]
Summary
Arranges for distribution of new [4th] English edition of Origin in the U. S.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 156 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5268 |
To Asa Gray 23[–4] July [1862]
Summary
AG’s orchid observations are admirable.
Owen has lectured on birds’ descending from one form.
French criticism of CD’s Primula paper.
Only AG has seen that Orchids was "a ""flank movement"" on the enemy".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 23[–4] July [1862] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (76) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3662 |
From Asa Gray 31 March [1862]
Summary
Has been reading J. D. Morell’s new book on psychology [An introduction to mental philosophy, on the inductive method (1862)].
Progress of the Civil War.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Mar [1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 108 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3489 |
From Asa Gray 6 March [1862]
Summary
Will observe Rhexia for CD to see whether it is dimorphic.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Mar [1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 107 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3467 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of our University, who had also many warm friends in England. End of first paragraph : ‘ …
From Asa Gray 10 February 1877
Summary
Sends specimens of two forms of Rhamnus lanceolata.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Feb 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 109: A84 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10837 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Dear Darwin Just in time this post day, a friend has sent me some thing of the 2 forms of …
From Asa Gray 5 December 1864
Summary
Congratulates CD on the Copley Medal.
Is making inquiries on the habits of American cuckoos and sends a letter from Henry Bryant on that subject.
Discusses the Civil War.
Encloses letter from W. H. Leggett containing observations on Amphicarpaea.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Dec 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 109: A87; DAR 165: 145 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4699 |
To Asa Gray 22 July [1860]
Summary
Greatly praises AG’s discussion of Origin in Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. [4 (1860): 411–15; 424–6].
Mentions other reviews of Origin; believes the BAAS meeting at Oxford greatly advanced the subject. Has heard his views are gaining ground in Germany.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 22 July [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (30) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2876 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … so will write no more. Farewell my kind & good friend. | Yours most truly | C. Darwin …
To Asa Gray 25 April [1860]
Summary
Origin reviews. Is annoyed at Richard Owen’s malignity [Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 25 Apr [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (13) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2767 |
From Asa Gray 3 August 1871
Summary
AG hopes to meet CD’s sons, who are visiting America.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Aug 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 176 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7894 |
To Asa Gray 3 April [1860]
Summary
Thinks AG’s review [of Origin] will aid much in making people think about subject.
Has been savagely and unfairly reviewed by Adam Sedgwick in the Spectator [24 Mar 1860],
but thinks F. J. Pictet’s review in opposition ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce", Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] a very fair one.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 3 Apr [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (47) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2743 |
To Asa Gray 8 June [1860]
Summary
Discusses recent reviews of Origin and has made a note on Owen’s [see 2737].
Has become interested in the floral structures of orchids.
Notes his recent observations on Primula; believes he has found male and female forms.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 8 June [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (40) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2825 |
To Asa Gray 10 September [1860]
Summary
Has received second part of AG’s Atlantic Monthly article ["Darwin on the origin of species", 6 (1860): 109–16, 229–39], and would like to have it reprinted in England with the first part.
Regrets no reviewer has touched upon embryology, which he feels provides one of his strongest arguments.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 10 Sept [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (34) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2910 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … each individual Fly. — Farewell my good Friend | Yours most truly | Charles Darwin Never …
| letter | (73) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (43) |
| Gray, Asa | (29) |
| Gray, J. L. | (1) |
| Wright, Charles | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (44) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | |
| Darwin, C. R. | (71) |
| Gray, J. L. | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Wright, Charles | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
William Yarrell
Summary
William Yarrell was a London businessman, a stationer and bookseller, who became an expert on British birds and fish, writing standard reference works on both. He was a member of several science and natural history societies, including the Linnean Society…
Matches: 1 hits
- … hearing of Yarrell's death, lamenting ' our old & excellent friend '. …
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Summary
The 1400 letters exchanged between Darwin and Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) account for around 10% of Darwin’s surviving correspondence and provide a structure within which all the other letters can be explored. They are a connecting thread that spans…
Matches: 5 hits
- … important to Darwin than those exchanged with his closest friend, the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. …
- … of his six year-old daughter, Maria, knowing that his friend, who had lost both a ten year-old …
- … appearance: he addressed one letter to his “ Glorified Friend ” after receiving a photograph of …
- … British economic interests and fell out with their mutual friend, the Harvard botanist Asa Gray (see …
- … about the aristocracy, is rude about Darwin’s one-time friend and bitter opponent, the …
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,…
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 4 hits
- … Yet on 15 January 1875 , Darwin confessed to his close friend Joseph Dalton Hooker, ‘I am getting …
- … also greatly honoured George. You have indeed been a true friend.’ Hooker was hampered by his …
- … in the form of a poem: From the Insects to their friend, Charles Darwin We are …
- … fellows. But Thiselton-Dyer had apparently jeopardised his friend’s chances by suggesting to the …
4.5 William Beard, comic painting
Summary
< Back to Introduction In June 1872, Darwin’s friend Asa Gray, the Harvard Professor of Botany, sent him a print or photograph of a comic painting by the American artist William Holbrook Beard. Titled The Youthful Darwin Expounding His Theories, it…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In June 1872, Darwin’s friend Asa Gray, the Harvard Professor …
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 7 hits
- … [ c . 27 August 1874] ). The death of a Cambridge friend, Albert Way, caused Darwin’s cousin, …
- … sent back his own to the publishers, he applied first to his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker, and …
- … this case you would I feel sure, no longer treat me as your friend, and you would free yourself at …
- … through William Walter Roberts, a Catholic priest and friend of Mivart’s, who was attending Huxley’s …
- … third son Francis married Amy Ruck, the sister of a friend of Leonard Darwin’s in the Royal …
- … ; letter from Michael Foster, 17 June [1874] ). Friend and patron Darwin championed …
- … on a more personal level, Darwin took care of his close friend Hooker, who stayed at Down after his …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 4 hits
- … discussions about species in the autumn of 1845, his close friend Joseph Dalton Hooker had been …
- … wrote a rather reflective letter to his former professor and friend, John Stevens Henslow, musing …
- … evidently did not satisfy Darwin, who hired his old school friend John Price to correct the work …
- … finally appear. It was no doubt a great relief to tell his friend Thomas Henry Huxley in early …
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: 7 hits
- … , to Thomas Henry Huxley for evaluation, and persuaded his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker to comment on …
- … deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend of Darwin’s and prominent …
- … all kinds has perished with him. He was always a most kind friend to me. So the world goes.—’ ( …
- … Society on 2 February, and in April Darwin wrote to his friend Asa Gray, a botanist in the United …
- … July 1865 ). This may have been unwise: Thomas Thomson, a friend of Hooker’s, described by him as a …
- … expect from their private communications; Lubbock, a younger friend, had been encouraged and …
- … Darwin was consulting, or encouraging George to consult, a friend, the civil engineer Edward Cresy, …
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: 9 hits
- … Hooker, Hugh Falconer, Louis Agassiz, Adam Sedgwick, A Friend of John Stuart Mill, Emma Darwin, …
- … original and dangerous theory of natural selection to his friend, the botanist, Joseph D Hooker …
- … To give one example, the last time I saw my dear old friend Falconer, he attacked me most vigorously …
- … DARWIN: Now when I see such strong feeling in my oldest friend, you need not wonder that I always …
- … myself mistaken and punished; 55 My good dear friend, forgive me. This is a trumpery letter …
- … highest authority on such subjects, and he said lately to a friend, who wrote to me, as follows. …
- … with this population, I see not. 121 Your cordial friend and true Yankee, Asa Gray. …
- … Hooker is pale. HOOKER: 153 Dear dear friend. My darling little second girl …
- … hernia. DARWIN: 154 My dear old friend… HOOKER: 155 I tried …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 5 hits
- … added, ‘when I look back, however, especially my beloved friend to the days I have spent in …
- … been worse.’ Recollections of the earlier loss of a close friend were prompted by the publication of …
- … having read a page of it, but relieved that Carlyle’s friend Erasmus Alvey Darwin, Darwin’s brother, …
- … was made public. On 1 September, an old Shrewsbury School friend, Lamplugh Dykes , wrote to …
- … our children’, Darwin told his old Cambridge University friend John Price on 27 December . As …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Darwin’s first love
Summary
Darwin’s long marriage to Emma Wedgwood is well documented, but was there an earlier romance in his life? How was his departure on the Beagle entangled with his first love? The answers are revealed in a series of flirtatious letters that Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of the attraction of Woodhouse for Darwin, but more as a friend and confidante , the difference …
Insectivorous plants
Summary
Darwin’s work on insectivorous plants began by accident. While on holiday in the summer of 1860, staying with his wife’s relatives in Hartfield, Sussex, he went for long walks on the heathland and became curious about the large number of insects caught by…
Darwin & coral reefs
Summary
The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
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: 5 hits
- … two sets of letters. The first is between Darwin and his friend Kew botanist J. D. Hooker. The …
- … has sent some of Darwin’s South American plants to his friend Kew botanist J. D. Hooker for …
- … J. D., 19 [Apr 1864] Darwin makes another plea to his friend Kew botanist J. D. Hooker to take …
- … C. R. to Hooker, J. D., 25 Apr [1864] Darwin thinks his friend Kew botanist J. D. Hooker takes …
- … spent preceding day with Henslow; much had to be done. His friend, Alexander Charles Wood, has …
Alexander von Humboldt
Summary
The phases of Charles Darwin’s career have often been defined by the books that he read, from Lyell’s Principles of Geology during the Beagle voyage to Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population during his London years. The book that encouraged him to…
Matches: 3 hits
- … and life that he called ‘Physique générale’. He was a friend and collaborator of Goethe and his …
- … Narrative , a gift from Henslow inscribed ‘to his friend C. Darwin on his departure from England. …
- … scientific traveller who ever lived,’ Darwin told his friend Joseph Hooker. ‘You might truly call …
Henrietta Huxley
Summary
A colourful and insightful exchange occurred in 1865 in a light-hearted conversation between Darwin and Henrietta Huxley, the wife of Darwin’s friend and colleague, Thomas Henry Huxley. Like her husband, Henrietta was a close friend and great champion of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin and Henrietta Huxley , the wife of Darwin’s friend and colleague, Thomas Henry Huxley . …
That monstrous stain: To J. M. Herbert, 2 June 1833
Summary
Darwin did not consider himself to be a particularly good writer, but many of his letters contain not just a wealth of information, but also beautifully expressed descriptions and impressions that would be the envy of any essayist or novelist. Such is the…
