To W. D. Fox [27 March 1851]
Summary
Sends condolences to WDF on the death of his father. Has brought his daughter [Anne] to J. M. Gully for the water-cure.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [27 Mar 1851] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 78a) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1396 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … I am & shall ever be your affectionate friend | Charles Darwin I have brought my eldest …
- … at The Mount, Shrewsbury, was a close friend of Fox’s sister. For CD’s inability to attend …
- … me have a line from you, my dear old Friend. I often think of our happy days at Cambridge; …
- … different I must appear to my few old friends to what I was formerly; but I internally …
To Emma Darwin [19 April 1851]
Summary
Detailed account of progress of Anne’s illness.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Date: | [19 Apr 1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.13: 11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1402 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … circle, 1730–1897: four generations of a family and their friends. London: Studio Vista. …
To Josiah Wedgwood III [after 12 July 1851]
Summary
Inquires about the nature of some money recently paid to him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Josiah (Jos) Wedgwood, III |
| Date: | [after 12 July 1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.10: 16 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1213 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Geological Society of London and friend of CD, was a stockbroker in Threadneedle …
To Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood [24 April 1851]
Summary
Arrangements for leaving Malvern after death of Anne.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Mackintosh; Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Wedgwood |
| Date: | [24 Apr 1851] |
| Classmark: | V&A / Wedgwood Collection (MS W/M 310) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1413 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 128: 3). Harriet Martineau was a close friend of Erasmus Alvey Darwin and Fanny Mackintosh …
To A. S. Horner 25 May [1851]
Summary
Thanks for her sympathy on the death of Annie Darwin, and sends news of Emma Darwin and the baby Horace.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Anne Susanna Lloyd; Anne Susanna Horner |
| Date: | 25 May [1851] |
| Classmark: | Cheffins (dealers) (10 January 2019, lot 209) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1428F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of letters to his family and from some of his friends. 2 vols. London: privately printed. …
From J. D. Hooker [c. April 1851]
Summary
Wants catalogue of small islands that contain peculiar plants. Thinks complete floras of islands in various stages of depression [subsidence] would provide good data.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. Apr 1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 164 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1382 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … James Dwight Dana he would give to ‘my friend’ (i.e. , J. D. Hooker) when he returned …
To William Erasmus Darwin 3 October [1851]
Summary
Discusses domestic affairs and gives some advice on manners.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Oct [1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1456 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to Henrietta Litchfield , they were ‘dear friends’ of the Darwin children ( Emma Darwin ( …
From Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood 28 [April 1851]
Summary
Thoughts after the death of Anne.
| Author: | Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Mackintosh; Frances Emma Elizabeth (Fanny) Wedgwood |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 [Apr 1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.13: 37 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1424 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Tollet s of Betley Hall, Staffordshire, close friends of the Wedgwood and Darwin families. …
To J. S. Dismorr 13 June [1851]
Summary
Suggests that JD consult with Edward Forbes about dredging.
Delighted he will look for fossil bones.
Asks him to look for Australian cirripedes.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Stewart Dismorr |
| Date: | 13 June [1851] |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 387 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1436 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … you had better direct to me to care of my friend Prof r Owen Royal College of Surgeons …
| letter | (9) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Mackintosh, F. E. E. | (1) |
| Wedgwood, F. E. E. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Dismorr, J. S. | (1) |
| Fox, W. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Mackintosh, F. E. E. | (2) |
| Wedgwood, F. E. E. | (2) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (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…
