To Richard Owen 11 November [1859]
Summary
Has asked his publisher to send a copy of Origin. Fears it will be "an abomination" in RO’s eyes. Urges him to read it straight through, as it is a condensed abstract and will otherwise be unintelligible.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Richard Owen |
| Date: | 11 Nov [1859] |
| Classmark: | Shrewsbury School, Taylor Library |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2515 |
To T. H. Huxley 25 December [1859]
Summary
Henry Holland and others have attacked his reasoning from analogy to one primordial created form – by which CD means only that we know nothing of how life originated. The reasoning seems probable to him, so he has kept it in.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 25 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 90) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2603 |
To J. D. Hooker [20 November 1859]
Summary
Curious about author of review of Origin in Athenæum.
W. B. Carpenter has written and sounds converted, as has Quatrefages [de Bréau], who will "go a long way with" CD.
Has been ill and thus had time to brood about reception of book.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [20 Nov 1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 27 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2537 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … November 1859, pp. 911–12 (see following letter). CD had read Hewett Cottrell Watson’s …
- … letter). According to the publisher’s marked copy of the Athenæum (City University Library, London) the reviewer was not Woodward but John R. Leifchild. Leifchild, a commissioner of coalfields, was a frequent reviewer in the quarterlies ( Wellesley Index ) and the author of books on the coal industry and, later, on religious topics ( NUC ). The attribution is confirmed in Marchand 1941 , p. 226. A review, written by John Lindley , of the fourth volume of Watson 1847–59 appeared in Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette , 12 …
To Charles Lyell [3 December 1859]
Summary
Encloses a letter from FitzRoy to the Times.
Mentions letter from W. B. Carpenter accepting single progenitor for major animal classes.
Speculates about Richard Owen’s opinion.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [3 Dec 1859] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.182) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2567 |
To T. H. Huxley 8 March [1859]
Summary
Sends THH questions about "serial homologies" and "vegetative repetition" in Mollusca and Radiata.
Abstract volume [Origin] nearly completed.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 8 Mar [1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 61) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2425 |
From J. D. Hooker [21 November 1859]
Summary
JDH’s congratulations on Origin.
Lyell believes S. P. Woodward wrote review in Athenæum.
Lyell’s and Huxley’s positive responses.
JDH has only plunged into a few chapters.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [21 Nov 1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 135–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2539 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … November 1859, pp. 911–12. See letter to J. D. Hooker, [20 November 1859] . Thomas …
- … letter to J. D. Hooker, [20 November 1859] , n. 2). John Lindley was the editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle . Hooker refers to an anonymous review of volume 4 of Watson 1847–59 , published in Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette , 12 …
To John Lubbock 17 December [1859]
Summary
Local affairs and finances.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | 17 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 263: 31 (EH 88206480) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2586 |
From H. C. Watson 30 November [1859]
Summary
Sends a correction for Origin reprint.
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Nov [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 37 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2562 |
To T. H. Huxley 27 November [1859]
Summary
Sends references for materials useful for THH’s lecture.
Breeding and crossing. Pigeon fanciers.
Responses to Origin: A. C. Ramsay, Charles Kingsley, Quatrefages de Bréau.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 27 Nov [1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 76) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2558 |
To W. D. Fox 23 September [1859]
Summary
His book [Origin] is nearly done. Is not so silly as to expect to convert WDF. Lyell is wavering; Hooker has come round.
Family news.
Asks WDF to find out if a cross between differently coloured horses produces a dun.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 23 Sept [1859] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 122) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2493 |
To John Murray [3 November 1859]
Summary
Infinitely pleased and proud of the appearance of his "child" [Origin, 1st ed.]. Thinks JM has been overgenerous in paying for his corrections. Offers to divide cost and regrets sending such badly composed copy.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | [3 Nov 1859] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 f.49) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2514 |
Matches: 2 hits
To T. H. Huxley 13 [March 1859]
Summary
Thanks for THH’s examples of serially modified and homologous parts in Radiata. Cannot understand how he forgot such cases.
Agassiz’s Essay on classification [1859] utterly impracticable rubbish.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 13 [Mar 1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 258) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2430 |
To T. H. Huxley 13 December [1859]
Summary
Sends anecdotes and drawings of pigeons for Royal Institution lecture. Offers parts on hybridisation and pigeons from his MS (if THH has patience to read them).
Has heard George Busk is converted.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 13 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 82–6) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2582 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 April [1859]
Summary
Has read first sheets of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae [introductory] essay [published separately as On the flora of Australia (1859)]. Criticises lack of evidence supporting views that best marked varieties occur at edges of range of species and that species remain under cultivation for many generations and suddenly begin to vary.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 Apr [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 10 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2450 |
To J. D. Hooker 26 [December 1859]
Summary
High, detailed praise for introductory essay to Flora Tasmaniae [reprinted as On the flora of Australia (1859)]. CD expects it to convert botanists from doctrine of immutable creation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 26 [Dec 1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 33, 30a |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2606 |
To J. D. Hooker 14 December [1859]
Summary
CD’s great satisfaction with JDH’s approval of Origin. The book has been extremely successful. Reactions of Asa Gray, Lyell, Bentham, and J. E. Gray.
Not one friend has noticed his pet bit in Origin: embryology.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 14 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 29 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2583 |
To John Murray 31 March [1859]
Summary
CD has heard from Lyell that JM is inclined to publish his work on the origin of species. Will send some chapters as soon as copyist has finished. Sends list of 12 chapters. It will be a popular abstract of more than 20 years’ work. It ought to be popular with scientific and semi-scientific readers.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 31 Mar [1859] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42153 ff.12–13) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2441 |
To A. R. Wallace 25 January [1859]
Summary
Expresses pleasure and relief at ARW’s response to joint publication of their pieces about natural selection.
Plans for the "abstract" [Origin].
Birds’ nests as evidence of variation of instincts.
Their collection of bees’ combs.
Praises ARW’s article.
Lyell’s and Hooker’s views [of species issue].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 25 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2405 |
To Charles Kingsley 1 December [1859]
Summary
Is very glad CK wrote the article My Winter Garden (Kingsley 1858), which CD enjoyed.
Thinks CK should read abstracts of Living Cirripedia (1851) and Living Cirripedia (1854), and then, if he is particularly interested, borrow the actual volumes, rather than purchase them.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Kingsley |
| Date: | 1 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (MSS gen 30.058) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2564F |
To John Lubbock [19 November 1859]
Summary
Has told John Murray to send copy of the Origin. There are "many valid and weighty arguments against my notions".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | [19 Nov 1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 263: 16 (EH 88206465) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2527 |
| Darwin, C. R. | (24) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Watson, H. C. | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Lubbock, John | (3) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (5) |
| Lubbock, John | (3) |
| Lyell, Charles | (3) |
Lost in translation: From Auguste Forel, 12 November 1874
Summary
You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections on your favourite topic—ants. If only you had paid attention when your mother tried to teach you English you might be able to read it. But you didn’t, and you…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections …
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: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 1 hits
- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts 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 …
1.2 George Richmond, marriage portrait
Summary
< Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more may once have existed. In a letter of 1873 an old Shrewsbury friend, Arthur Mostyn Owen, offered to send Darwin a watercolour sketch of him, painted many years…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of …
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: 1 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began …
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 …
German and Dutch photograph albums
Summary
Darwin Day 2018: To celebrate Darwin's 209th birthday, we present two lavishly produced albums of portrait photographs which Darwin received from continental admirers 141 years ago. These unusual gifts from Germany and the Netherlands are made…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1877, Charles Darwin was sent some unusual birthday presents: two lavishly …
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: 1 hits
- … I am merely slaving over the sickening work of preparing new Editions …
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I think we have proved that the sleep of plants is to lessen injury to leaves from radiation …
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: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
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 …
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 …
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
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 …
Diagrams and drawings in letters
Summary
Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have been added to the online transcripts of the letters. The contents include maps, diagrams, drawings, sketches and photographs, covering geological, botanical,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations …
