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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: 7 hits

  • … Letter 3787 - Darwin, H. E. to Darwin, [29 October 1862] Henrietta Darwin provides …
  • … her observations on the expression of emotion in dogs with Emma Darwin. Letter 8676 …
  • … Letter 3634 - Darwin to Gray, A., [1 July 1862] Darwin tells American naturalist Asa …
  • … Letter 5756 - Langton, E. & C. to Wedgwood S. E., [after 9 November 1868] Darwin …
  • … E. to Darwin, W. E., [January 23rd 1887]: Emma Darwin tells her eldest son, William, …
  • … lady”. Darwin, E. to Darwin, W. E. , (March, 1862 - DAR 219.1:49) Emma Darwin …
  • … is a great critic”, thought the article worth reprinting, Emma was less convinced. Letter …

Dining at Down House

Summary

Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's Domestic Life While Darwin is best remembered for his scientific accomplishments, he greatly valued and was strongly influenced by his domestic life. Darwin's…

Matches: 11 hits

  • … In addition to sharing a tender relationship with his wife Emma, Darwin played an active role in the …
  • … traveling on horseback while ill. Letter 465 —Emma Wedgwood (Emma Darwin) to Charles …
  • … agreeable” for her sake. Letter 3626 —Emma Darwin to T. G. Appleton, 28 June [1862] …
  • … Letter 3597 —Darwin to Joseph Dalton Hooker, 11 June [1862] Among bits of family news and …
  • … on the difficulties of finding a suitable cook. Emma Darwin to Henrietta Darwin, [4 …
  • … among other things, for Darwin’s complaints. Emma Darwin to Henrietta Darwin, [14 April …
  • … who was travelling in the south of France at the time, Emma describes typical nineteenth-century …
  • … Scottish medium, Daniel Dunglass Home, with Galton. Emma Darwin to Henrietta Darwin, [4 …
  • … taste of Darwin's life at Down House, recreate recipes from Emma Darwin's cookbook and …
  • … food that Darwin ate, using authentic recipes from his wife Emma Darwin’s cookbook. Our menu …
  • … were particularly intrigued by this letter written from Emma to Charles before they were married …

Earthworms

Summary

As with many of Darwin’s research topics, his interest in worms spanned nearly his entire working life. Some of his earliest correspondence about earthworms was written and received in the 1830s, shortly after his return from his Beagle voyage, and his…

Matches: 5 hits

  • … Questions | Experiment Earthworms and Wedgwood cousins As with many of …
  • … of his own family, in particular his nieces, Lucy and Sophy Wedgwood, the daughters of Emma Darwin& …
  • … these two young women, even going so far as to submit Lucy Wedgwood's observations for …
  • … by natural selection. His book Fertilisation of Orchids (1862) was Darwin's "flank …
  • … Letters Letter 385 - Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood & Josiah Wedgwood to Darwin, 10 …

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: 11 hits

  • … House, celebrated his marriage in January 1839 to his cousin Emma Wedgwood; the one of Darwin is …
  • … theories.   As early as February 1839, Elizabeth Wedgwood had written to her sister Emma: ‘My …
  • … Italy – or would a portrait by Holmes be preferable?’ Emma in response promised, ‘I will go and get …
  • … not return from Italy until August or September 1839. Josiah Wedgwood himself wrote to his daughter …
  • … arranging ‘to send you Richmond’s pictures of self and Emma’: ‘self’ presumably means Charles, and …
  • … was being assembled, so that both the Darwin and the Wedgwood families would have one. It is …
  • … lent Richmond’s watercolour drawings of Charles and Emma, with a note that the one of Charles had an …
  • … – the only one she knew about – to 1840. However, in Emma Darwin: A Century of Family Letters …
  • … for Dec. 1839. Joseph Hooker, letter to Darwin, 17 March 1862 (DCP-LETT-3474). Erasmus Darwin, …
  • … Murray, 1887), vol. 3, p. 371. Henrietta Litchfield (ed.), Emma Darwin: A Century of Family …
  • … University Press, 1933), frontispiece. Barbara and Hensleigh Wedgwood, The Wedgwood Circle 1730 …

Darwin and Fatherhood

Summary

Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…

Matches: 8 hits

  • … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
  • … a result, Darwin rarely spent a day without the company of Emma and at least some of his children. …
  • … they employed eight servants including two nursery maids. Emma actively supervised and assisted with …
  • … to see their father when he was working (Darwin to his wife Emma,  [7-8 February 1845] ). Although …
  • … (Darwin to W. D. Fox,  10 October [1850] ) as he and Emma tried to choose suitable schools and …
  • … all of their education in the home, although he noted in 1862 that his fifteen-year-old daughter …
  • … her own wish’ (Darwin to his son William,  30 [October 1862] ). Darwin frequently discussed the …
  • … the age of twenty-six. This meant that in old age Darwin and Emma continued to share Down House with …

Science: A Man’s World?

Summary

Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … In these notes, written shortly before his courtship with Emma, Darwin weighed the pros and cons of …
  • … 3715 - Claparède, J. L. R. A. E. to Darwin, [6 September 1862] Claparède acknowledges …
  • … of physiology at Bedford College for girls. Appealing to Emma’s “feminine sympathies”, Cresy is keen …

Expression

Summary

Darwin's interest in emotional expression can be traced as far back as the Beagle voyage. He was fascinated by the different sounds and gestures among the peoples of Tierra del Fuego, and on his return from the voyage he started recording observations…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … some funny notions on the subject ', he wrote to Hooker in 1862. After Origin was …
  • … his marriage, he shared his interest in expression with Emma (then his fiancée), and asked her to …
  • … and their communications were often addressed either to Emma or her eldest daughter . 'I am …
  • … extended to caged creatures. Darwin requested his niece Lucy Wedgwood to ' think of any fact …

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

  • … lady”. Darwin, E. to Darwin, W. E. , (March 1862 - DAR 219.1:49) Emma Darwin …
  • … to Darwin, E., [8 November 1872] Ann Cupples asks Emma to pass on thanks to Darwin for …

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: 6 hits

  • … on  Verbascum.  Darwin had suggested to Scott in 1862, when Scott was working at the Royal Botanic …
  • … vol. 10, letter to John Scott, 19 November [1862] ). Darwin had already written to Hooker of …
  • … disturbing the serenity of the Christian world’ (Brewster 1862, p. 3). John Hutton Balfour, though …
  • …  vol. 10, letter from J. H. Balfour, 14 January 1862 ). According to Hooker, Balfour’s prejudice …
  • … attending school, and spent some time travelling in Europe (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242),  Emma
  • … people weren’t so foolish’;. In November, Darwin and Emma visited Erasmus in London ( …

Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health

Summary

On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’.  Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…

Matches: 9 hits

  • … thus completing the work he had started on the genus in 1862. His varied botanical observations and …
  • … garden, taking notes by dictation. His niece Lucy Caroline Wedgwood sent observations of  …
  • … household news, were sometimes written by Darwin’s wife, Emma, or by Henrietta. Darwin’s own replies …
  • … case of Dimorphism’ in  Menyanthes  ( letter from Emma and Charles Darwin to W. E. Darwin, [20 …
  • … act. In his ongoing quest to confirm the statement in his 1862 book on orchids that nature ‘abhors …
  • … Scott, a gardener at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, in 1862 with a letter regarding the …
  • … and Book of Joshua critically examined  (Colenso 1862–79). After reading extracts from Colenso’s …
  • … Correspondence vol. 10, letter to Asa Gray, 6 November [1862] ). A declaration that Erasmus …
  • … he saw few people outside the family and, according to Emma Darwin’s diary and his own ‘Journal’, …

Virginia Isitt: Darwin’s secretary?

Summary

In an undated and incomplete draft letter to a “Miss I.”, Emma Darwin appears to be arranging for Miss I. to come to Down for a trial period as a secretary. When the letter first came to light, no one had heard of the mysterious “Miss I.” and, as far as we…

Matches: 5 hits

  • … an undated and incomplete draft letter to a “Miss I.”, Emma Darwin appears to be arranging for Miss …
  • … 95), helped to date the draft and identify Miss I. Emma wrote to her daughter Henrietta on 17 …
  • … the Darwin connection. Additionally, he told us that between 1862 and 1863 Miss Isitt had studied …
  • … had recently married. So, it is possible that he and Emma were more than usually receptive to the …
  • … we don’t know how the experiment worked out. According to Emma Darwin’s diary, Miss Isitt arrived on …

Discussion Questions and Essay Questions

Summary

There are a wide range of possibilities for opening discussion and essay writing on Darwin’s correspondence.  We have provided a set of sample discussion questions and essay questions, each of which focuses on a particular topic or correspondent in depth.…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … on experimental practice? [John Scott and sexual dimorphism (1862), Fritz Müller and climbing plants …
  • … in relation to private or personal life? [Charles Lyell, Emma Wedgwood, W. D. Fox (1830s)] How …
  • … Did Darwin believe in progress? [Lyell (1860, 1881), Hooker (1862), Lubbock (1865), Graham (1881)] …

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: 4 hits

  • … Letter 3800 — Scott, John to Darwin, C. R., [11 Nov 1862] Scottish gardener John Scott notes …
  • … Letter 3805 — Darwin, C. R. to Scott, John, 12 Nov [1862] Darwin thanks Scott for bringing …
  • … J. D. Hooker to take Scott on at Kew. Darwin notes that Emma begs him not to employ him at Down. He …
  • … Letter 1176 — Darwin, C. R. to Darwin, Emma, [20–1 May 1848] Darwin writes to his wife Emma. …

Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics

Summary

On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…

Matches: 6 hits

  • … Several correspondents, such as his cousin Hensleigh Wedgwood and Heinrich Georg Bronn, expressed …
  • … next year and published the results of the orchid study in 1862. Back to the origin of sex: …
  • … He presented the results of his study in a paper of 1862 and in  The different forms of flowers on …
  • … level. Describing her husband’s current enthusiasm, Emma Darwin wrote to Mary Lyell: ‘At present he …
  • … suppose he hopes to end in proving it to be an animal.’ ( Emma Darwin  2: 177). As was so …
  • … fatal illness never far from their minds, Charles and Emma did whatever they could to promote Etty’s …

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: 10 hits

  • … 1833] (Boot) Leslie life of Constable [Leslie 1843]. (Emma) (read) M rs  Fry’s Life …
  • … du rire. In–8.  A. Durand . 3 fr. 117  [Dumont 1862] Goethe. — Œuvres d’histoires …
  • … Public Library. 3  ‘Books … Read’ is in Emma Darwin’s hand. 4  “”Traité …
  • … 6  The text from page [1v.] to page [6] is in Emma Darwin’s hand and was copied from Notebook C, …
  • … to old Aristotle.’ ( LL 3: 252). 10  Emma Darwin wrote ‘7 th ’ instead of “3 d “ …
  • … 12  A mistranscription for ‘Entozoa’ by Emma Darwin. See Notebook C, p. 266 ( Notebooks ). …
  • … wrote ‘Transact’ to replace ‘Journal’ written in Emma Darwin’s hand. 16  Emma Darwin …
  • …  The text from page [1a] to half way down page [5a] is in Emma Darwin’s hand and is a copy of CD’s …
  • … in ink by CD. 73  This entry was written by Emma Darwin. 74  “8 … …
  • … à Buffon.) Paris.  *119: 14v. Dumont, Léon. 1862.  Des causes du rire.  Paris.  *128: …