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Women as a scientific audience

Summary

Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … target audience? Letter 2447 - Darwin to Murray, J., [5 April 1859] …
  • … Letter 2461 - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., [11 May 1859] Darwin expresses anxiety over …

Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute

Summary

Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … of the size of the two-volume work from his publisher, John Murray, he wrote to Murray on 3 …
  • … a chapter ‘on Man’. After a few days, he wrote back to Murray proposing that some of the more …
  • … is as good as praise for selling a Book’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 January [1867] ). A …
  • … and the tedious work of correction began. Darwin wrote to Murray on 18 March to say that he …
  • … to translate  Variation . Indeed, he told his publisher, John Murray, in a letter of 4 April …
  • … time it took William Sweetland Dallas to prepare the index. John Murray had engaged Dallas and …
  • … was sure that the colours were protective and suggested that John Jenner Weir might conduct …

Origin

Summary

Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…

Matches: 23 hits

  • While still on the Isle of Wight, Darwin also heard from John Stevens Henslow, his old mentor and
  • have just killed all the scores of cross-breds’, he told W. B. Tegetmeier on 8 September, inviting
  • across tropics ’. When Hookers essay was published in 1859, it was one of the first publications
  • as by far the most capable judge in Europe. ’ By April 1859, he was able to tell Wallace that ‘ …
  • Abstractwould not be finished until around April 1859. But this was an optimistic estimate. …
  • In late March, Lyell had a word with his own publisher, John Murray, who had already published
  • light of this, Darwin asked Lyell whether he shouldtell Murray that my Book is not more  un
  • … ’  Even before seeing Darwins manuscript, Murray objected to the termsabstractand ‘ …
  • of favoured races” ’, he told Lyell. On 31 March 1859, Darwin wrote to Murray describing his work
  • length, and the terms he expected; he also acknowledged that Murray wished to see the manuscript
  • I publish for Sir Charles Lyell ’. Darwin was uneasy. Murray, he thought, should see the manuscript
  • origin of all animate forms.’  Moreover, Darwin warned Murray, ‘ it would be a stigma on my work
  • Reading Darwins first three chapters was sufficient for Murray to confirm his offer on 10 April
  • old draftthe loss would have killed me! ’ Although Murray was committed to publishing Origin, …
  • George Frederick Pollock. The former, in a long letter to Murray, believed that Darwin shouldre
  • the latter not only recommended publication but advised Murray to increase the print run from 500 to
  • are very heavy,—as heavy as possible ’, he told Murray on 14 JuneHe tried to make the textclear
  • the work of correcting proofs continued over the summer of 1859, Darwin had to take the water cure
  • never shirked a difficulty’, he told Lyell on 20 September 1859, ‘ I am foolishly anxious for your
  • of Science meeting held in Aberdeen from 14 to 21 September 1859. Darwin was confident that in time
  • As the trade publication day of 22 November approached, Murray sent Darwin a boundspecimen copy’ …
  • … & proud at the appearance of my child ’, and agreed to Murrays proposed priceAccording to
  • and negative, to his work flowed in. By early December 1859, he admitted that he needed tothink

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: 23 hits

  • had been in two volumes and had cost twenty-four shillings.) Murrays partner, Robert Francis Cooke, …
  • Quarterly Review  discussing works on primitive man by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor. It
  • of anonymous reviews. Its proprietor was none other than John Murray, Darwins publisher. So
  • wording of both the letter to the editor and the letter to Murray to accompany it. The depth of
  • a new publisherand advised that Darwin should not push Murray to the point of cutting off
  • … [6 or 7 August 1874] ). When the letter was finally sent to Murray, Darwin referred only to their
  • … ‘asking a favour ‘. He explained why he had written to Murray and not the editor of the  Quarterly
  • to review me in a hostile spirit’ ( letter to John Murray, 11 August 1874 ). Darwin was
  • St G. J. Mivart, 11 January [1872] ). To Darwins relief, Murray replied immediately: ‘I have lost
  • number of the Review & in the same type’  ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George
  • anonymous reviews. While staying with Hooker over Christmas, John Tyndall, professor at and
  • asthe natural outflow of his character’ ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 December 1874 ). …
  • in almost total failure of observations in New Zealand (see G. B. Airy ed. 1881). Darwins
  • in prettiness & snugness’ ( letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 12 October [1874] ).   …
  • position of vicar of Deptford ( letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 12 October [1874] ), but
  • to purchase the wooded land, which he had been renting from John Lubbock, led to a straining of
  • the sale was agreed in April for £300 ( letter from John Lubbock, 2 April 1874 ), a high price
  • for about a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results
  • of other insect-eating plants. The surgeon and botanist John Ralfs sent  Utricularia  from
  • in order to work on its difficult structures ( letter to John Ralfs, 13 July [1874] ). The
  • children shedding tears as tiny babies ( letter from F. S. B. François de Chaumont, 29 April 1874
  • a printed appeal for funds, raising £860 ( Circular to John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, …
  • from E. A. Darwin, 17 [March 1874] ). He tried to persuade John Murray to publish a second edition

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.…

Matches: 10 hits

  • … on 24 February, and all 2500 copies were sold in a week. ‘Murray says he is “torn to pieces” by …
  • … on 28 February . Demand continued throughout the year, and Murray produced three more printings, …
  • … £1470 for the first two printings, Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand …
  • … expressed by Darwin’s old friend, the former vicar of Down John Brodie Innes. Darwin and Innes had …
  • … ‘a windbag full of metaphysics & classics’ ( letter to John Murray, 13 April [1871] ). …
  • … Gazette , and wrote to its author, who turned out to be John Morley, a leading advocate of …
  • … and transmitted by culture, not biology ( letter from John Morley, 30 March 1871 ). …
  • … by his wife and children. William offered his assessment of John Stuart Mill’s theory of …
  • … he suspected that very few would actually sell (letters to John Murray, 17 August [1871] and …
  • … years following the publication of  Origin of species . Murray convinced him to appear in  Vanity …

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: 16 hits

  • … of sterility between varieties of  Verbascum . When John Scott, foreman of the propagating …
  • … Darwin, impressed, gave him the commission ( see letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ). …
  • … to publish on  Linum  ‘at once’ ( letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ), writing up his …
  • … buy it. When he submitted the manuscript to his publisher, John Murray, he boasted: ‘I can say with …
  • … in the least , whether the Book will sell’ ( letter to John Murray, 9 [February 1862] ). To his …
  • … paper for the  Natural History Review  ( see letter to John Lubbock, 16 [December 1862] ). Aware …
  • … of the old  Beagle  crew, Bartholomew James Sulivan, John Clements Wickham, and Arthur Mellersh, …
  • … of this, he prescribed strict conditions for a meeting with John Lubbock: ‘if you could … let me go …
  • … at 9 o clock I do not think it would hurt me’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 23 October [1862] ). …
  • … on botany. Even at the start of their correspondence he told John Scott: ‘Botany is a new subject to …
  • … odds & ends of botany & you know far more’ ( letter to John Scott, 19 November [1862] ). …
  • … Lyell, 14 October [1862] ). Moreover, when the physicist John Tyndall, fresh from a summer in the …
  • … of Darwin’s circle was in Switzerland in the summer: John Lubbock briefly met up with Tyndall and …
  • … discovered prehistoric lake-dwellings ( see letter from John Lubbock, 23 August 1862 ). Lubbock …
  • … to view the prehistoric sites near Amiens ( see letter from John Lubbock, 15 May 1862 ), and he …
  • … about the antiquity of the human species ( see letter from John Lubbock, 6 January 1862 ). …

Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex

Summary

The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…

Matches: 15 hits

  • … March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If any man wants to …
  • … domestication . Having been advertised by the publisher John Murray as early as 1865, the two …
  • … increased the amount of work substantially. Darwin asked Murray to intervene, complaining on 9 …
  • … a great loss to the Book’. But Darwin’s angry letter to Murray crossed one from Dallas to himself, …
  • … a cheque to Dallas for £55  s ., and recommended to Murray that Dallas receive additional payment. …
  • … of the book were sold within a month of its release, and Murray made immediate arrangements for a …
  • … profound contempt of me. I feel convinced it is by Owen’. John Edward Gray, a colleague of Richard …
  • … me in the face, but not behind my back’ ( letter to John Murray, 25 February [1868] ). Wallace …
  • … R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] ). The review was in fact by John Robertson, a Scottish journalist …
  • … a letter of thanks to the naturalist and customs offcial John Jenner Weir for a paper on apterous …
  • … depends on the actions of the female’, and of rats, John Bush observed on 30 March that two …
  • … the direct result of natural selection ( Variation  2: 185–9). Wallace seized upon this point in a …
  • … the whole System is sustained.’ The former Down clergyman, John Brodie Innes, passed easily over …
  • … and joy. Satisfaction in one’s children, Darwin wrote to John Price on 26 November , was ‘the …
  • … poets, and men of science, including Adam Sedgwick, John Stevens Henslow, and William Jackson Hooker …

Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest

Summary

The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of  Origin. Darwin got the fourth…

Matches: 10 hits

  • … of scientific admirers at Down, among them Robert Caspary, John Traherne Moggridge, and Ernst …
  • … regime led to Darwin’s being teased by his neighbour, John Lubbock, about the prospect of riding to …
  • … with our beagles before the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866 ). More …
  • … Since the publication of  Origin  in November 1859, Darwin had continued gathering and organising …
  • … On 21 February Darwin received notification from John Murray that stocks of the third edition of  …
  • … George Henslow, the son of his Cambridge mentor, John Stevens Henslow, stayed for two days in April …
  • … In June, Darwin was visited by the orchid specialist John Traherne Moggridge, whose work on the self …
  • … out, ‘business would be totally paralysed’. Similarly, John Murray gave as a reason for his decision …
  • … ‘gaieties travelling & War Bulletins’ ( letter from John Murray, 18 July 1866 ). I …
  • … for the criminal prosecution of the colonial governor Edward John Eyre. In his efforts to suppress …

Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?

Summary

Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…

Matches: 11 hits

  • … Thomas Lauder Brunton, a specialist in pharmacology, and John Scott Burdon Sanderson, a professor at …
  • … “for Heaven knows when it will be ready” ( letter to John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). Keeping …
  • … with leading physiologists such as David Ferrier and John Hughlings Jackson. Darwin declined to …
  • … Instinct  In February, Darwin received a letter from John Traherne Moggridge on the nature of …
  • … fund was first suggested in early April by Katharine Murray Lyell in conversation with Emma Darwin, …
  • … A group of Huxley’s close friends, including Hooker, John Lubbock, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, …
  • … edition was called for. There were commercial advantages for Murray in bringing out a substantially …
  • … your own power & usefulness”, citing the examples of John Stuart Mill and Charles Lyell, who …
  • … from Ernst Meitzen, 17 January 1873 ). A poor-law officer, John Farr, wrote: “Faith like Species, …
  • … more permanent than species are permanent” ( letter from John Farr, 7 July 1873 ). Further …
  • … closer to home, when he was graced by an invitation from John Jenner Weir to act as a patron of the …

Darwin’s reading notebooks

Summary

In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…

Matches: 21 hits

  • the transcript) and the non-scientific on the right (labelledb’). He continued this separation of
  • Archipelago [Crawfurd 1820] Raffeles d[itt]o [T. S. B. Raffles 1817] Buffon Suites
  • 183941]— in Geograph Soc Siebolds Japan [P. F. B. von Siebold 183350]— d[itt]o Kalm
  • Domestic Improvement ] Loudons. Journal of Nat Hist Z & B [ Magazine of Natural History
  • Nemesis to China [Bernard 1844]. The Emigrant, Head [F. B. Head 1846] St. Johns
  • of Birds from distant countries Birds of Japan [P. F. B. von Siebold 183350] Zoolog. Soc
  • 1766] Count Dandalo on silk worm Eng. Translat 1825Murray [Dandolo 1825] /good/ M rs
  • B.M. 6. 6. Black Edin. Longman [Ramsay 1848] St. Johns Nat. Hist. of Sutherlanshire, Murray
  • Liebigs Lectures on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Sir John Davies. China during the War and Peace
  • 1801]. well Skimmed B. Edwards Hist. of W. Indies [B. Edwards 17931801]. d[itt]o. …
  • … ] to end of Vol: XVIII & Part I. of V. 19 (1843) 25. Murray Domestic Poultry.— Domestic
  • d . Series. vol 3. p. 1 to 312 30 th  Colquhoun (John) The Moor & the Loch [Colquhoun
  • Buffon [Milne-Edwards 183440]. March 5 th  St. Johns Highlands [Saint John 1846] 8
  • Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] (Innes) Hairy
  • The Dog in health & Disease by StonehengeLongman 1859 [Stonehenge 1859].— on ToyDogs
  • … [Combe 1828] Macclintocks Arctic Voyage [Macclintock 1859] [DAR *128: 153] …
  • … [G. Bennett 1860] Read 114 Village Bells [Manning] 1859] } Fanny The Woman in White
  • many vols. I have read.— [DAR *128: 149] Murray Geograph. Distrib. Price William
  • up the River   Amazon, including a residence at Pará . (Murrays Home and Colonial Library.) …
  • Translated from the German and French by Lady Duff Gordon. (Murrays Home and Colonial Library.) …
  • in DAR 71: 18091.]  *119: 22v.; 119: 22a Murray, Andrew. 1866The geographical

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: 9 hits

  • … to Darwin, [1873] Ellen Lubbock, wife of naturalist John Lubbock, responds to Darwin’s …
  • … 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s queries …
  • …  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …
  • … challenging ideas. Letter 2447 - Darwin to Murray, J., [5 April 1859] …
  • … Letter 2461  - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., [11 May 1859] Darwin expresses anxiety over …
  • … Letter 2475  - Darwin to Hooker, J. D., [2 July 1859] Darwin returns the manuscript of …
  • … Letter 2501   - Lyell, C. to Darwin, [3 October 1859] Lyell offers praise and …
  • … editorial criticism of a paper written by English naturalist John Lubbock. In addition to offering …
  • …  - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he is undertaking …

Forms of flowers

Summary

Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … results of similar work carried out by correspondents like John Scott . Scott had been studying …
  • … to write Forms of flowers . He contacted his publisher John Murray in early April 1877, …

Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts

Summary

At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of  Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … and amphibians, while Roland Trimen in South Africa and John Jenner Weir in London sent more …
  • … and broadening the forums in which Darwinism was discussed. John Murray brought out the first issue …
  • … that to me would have been a pleasing sight’ ( letter to John Murray, [after 18 September 1869] ). …

Variation under domestication

Summary

Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A fascination with domestication Throughout his working life, Darwin retained an interest in the history, techniques, practices, and processes of domestication. Artificial selection, as practiced by plant and…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species . 1859. London: John Murray. (Chapter I "Variation …
  • … domestication to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), the class went on a field trip to a …

2.23 Hope Pinker statue, Oxford Museum

Summary

< Back to Introduction Henry Richard Hope Pinker’s life-size statue of Darwin was installed in the Oxford University Museum on 14 June 1899. It was the latest in a series of statues of great scientific thinkers, the ‘Founders and Improvers of Natural…

Matches: 7 hits

  • … supporters in Oxford. The Professor of Physiology John Burdon Sanderson wrote to Tylor to suggest, …
  • … vision of the building and its functions that Acland and John Ruskin had conceived half a century …
  • … Oxford Museum (ditto, HRHP/LPM/UVW49). Henry W. Acland and John Ruskin, The Oxford Museum, ‘From …
  • … (eds), More Letters of Charles Darwin , 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1903), vol. 1, p. 38. Anon., …
  • … Press, 1909), pp. 118–120. Edward Tyas Cook, The Life of John Ruskin, 2 nd ed . , 2 vols …
  • … of Leiden, 2016, at leidenuniv.nl, accessed September 2019. John Holmes, Temple of Science: The …
  • … Museum of Natural History, 2020), pp. 136, 148–149. John Holmes, Temple of Science: The Pre …

Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution

Summary

The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’.  Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…

Matches: 5 hits

  • … Quatrefages had corresponded with Darwin regularly since 1859, and viewed his relationship with …
  • … the mother and foetus during pregnancy. As a case in point, John Jenner Weir described the offspring …
  • … also discussed recent experiments by Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall that provided evidence for the …
  • … a memorandum. He asked his neighbour, the naturalist John Lubbock, who was now MP for Maidstone, to …
  • … reference to mankind of much importance ’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 17 July 1870 ). The motion to …