To A. D. Bartlett 14 February [1865]
Summary
CD sends thanks for feather of the Gallus.
The rabbit arrived safely, but unfortunately the entrails had been removed; if ADB catches the other one, CD would like it sent unmutilated.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Abraham Dee Bartlett |
| Date: | 14 Feb [1865] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4771 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 [February 1865]
Summary
Hildebrand has sent copy of his paper on Pulmonaria in Botanische Zeitung.
How much should CD contribute to Falconer’s bust?
Oswald Heer on alpine and Arctic floras.
A. R. Wallace on geographical distribution in Malay Archipelago.
Lyell’s new edition of Elements. Wishes someone would do a book like it on botany.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 [Feb 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 261 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4772 |
From J. D. Hooker [17 February 1865]
Summary
Why botanists will not subscribe to Falconer’s bust with enthusiasm.
Scott has been offered curatorship at Calcutta Botanic Garden.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [17 Feb 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 10–11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4773 |
From George Busk 20 February 1865
Summary
On a proposed meeting of friends of the deceased Hugh Falconer to decide on a memorial to him. Invites CD’s support.
| Author: | George Busk |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Feb 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 380 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4774 |
To Charles Lyell 21 February [1865]
Summary
Belated thanks to CL for copy of Elements. Praises CL’s work. Notes especially Atlantic continents, the Weald, the Purbeck beds, glacial action, and the formation of lake-basins.
Also mentions account of Heer’s work
and CD’s disagreement with J. D. Forbes.
Suggests that CL have Murray print a two-volume edition [of the Elements].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 21 Feb [1865] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.306) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4775 |
To William Bernhard Tegetmeier 27 February [1865]
Summary
Wants his fowl MS.
Will shortly return WBT’s skulls.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 27 Feb [1865] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4776 |
From J. D. Hooker [27 February 1865?]
Summary
Will arrive Saturday [4 Mar] on afternoon train.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [27 Feb 1865?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 12 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4777 |
From Benjamin Dann Walsh 1 March 1865
Summary
Sends his paper on "Willow-galls" [Proc. Entomol. Soc. Philadelphia 3 (1864): 543–644].
Lengthy criticism of Agassiz’s views on species as stated in his Essay on classification [1857].
Interested by CD’s trimorphism in Lythrum. Thinks some great mystery may lie in the fact that in some genera, some species are tri-, some di-, and some monomorphic, and in other genera, Apis, Vespa, Bombus, all the known species are dimorphic.
| Author: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4778 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 6 [March 1865]
Summary
Asks for return of page about pigeon crossing.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 6 [Mar 1865] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4779 |
From Frederick Ransome 6 March 1865
Summary
Requests a postponement of payment on a note for £100.
| Author: | Frederick Ransome |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 99: 19–20 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4780 |
From Frederick Ransome 9 March 1865
Summary
Thanks CD for his consideration in meeting his convenience respecting the payment of the £100.
| Author: | Frederick Ransome |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 99: 22–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4781 |
From J. D. Hooker [10 March 1865]
Summary
Thomas Thomson has gone over Scott’s paper; encloses his conclusions. Not fit for publication in present form. His experiments should have been repeated to resolve his disagreement with Gärtner.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [10 Mar 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 13–14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4782 |
From Rudolph Heine 10 March 1865
Summary
Admires Origin, but CD does not consider hereditary law of use and disuse.
| Author: | Rudolph Heine |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 134 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4783 |
From W. B. Tegetmeier 13 March 1865
Summary
Will return page on pigeons.
Has concluded his crossing experiments and found no trace of hybrid sterility or loss of fertility.
The Field is publishing a series of papers on different pigeon varieties [24 (1864): 366, 395, 459; 25 (1865): 115, 139, 155, 228, 258].
| Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 63 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4785 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 14 March [1865]
Summary
Asks for WBT’s help in arranging for woodcuts to illustrate pigeon chapters of Variation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 14 Mar [1865] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4786 |
To Rudolph Heine 16 March [1865]
Summary
Is pleased to hear of Dr Heine’s interest in Origin. Questions whether Dr Heine’s law of inheritance can be demonstrated.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Rudolph Heine |
| Date: | 16 Mar [1865] |
| Classmark: | Christie’s (dealers) (23 November 2011); J. A. Stargardt (dealer) (26 March 1992) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4786F |
From W. B. Tegetmeier [28 February – 5 March 1865]
Summary
Encloses some poultry feathers.
Will read over and return CD’s MS on fowls. Has been delayed by an eye injury.
| Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [28 Feb – 5 Mar 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 64 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4787 |
To J. D. Hooker 16 [March 1865]
Summary
Thanks for Thomson’s and JDH’s views on Scott’s paper. Will send it back with advice and explanations.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 16 [Mar 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 264 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4788 |
From Francis Trevelyan Buckland 18 March 1865
Summary
Introduces Cholmondely Pennell of the Admiralty, who wants to speak to CD about a literary matter.
| Author: | Francis Trevelyan (Frank) Buckland |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 359 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4789 |
From George Stewardson Brady 19 March 1865
Summary
CD’s statement in Origin that clover is utterly dependent on humble-bee for fertilisation has been questioned by his friend’s evidence of visits by other insects. Asks CD’s opinion.
| Author: | George Stewardson Brady |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 276 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4790 |
| letter | (261) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (112) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (22) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (7) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (7) |
| Henslow, F. H. | (6) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (142) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (24) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (8) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (6) |
| Murray, John (b) | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (253) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (46) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (15) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (13) |
| Müller, Fritz | (9) |
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: 29 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The …
- … However, several smaller projects came to fruition in 1865, including the publication of his long …
- … of Hugh Falconer Darwin’s first letter to Hooker of 1865 suggests that the family had had a …
- … the house jolly’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] ). Darwin was ready to submit his …
- … letter from Hugh Falconer to Erasmus Alvey Darwin, 3 January 1865 ). Erasmus forwarded his letters …
- … laboured in vain’ ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 6 January [1865] ). Sic transit gloria …
- … the world goes.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 February [1865] ). However, Hooker, at the time …
- … are unalloyed’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 February 1865 ). Darwin, now ‘haunted’ by …
- … with a vengeance’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] ). Continuing ill-health …
- … to try anyone’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] ). He particularly hated being ill …
- … of life. He wrote to Charles Lyell on 22 January [1865] , ‘unfortunately reading makes my head …
- … it up by early July ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865] ). In July, he consulted …
- … bread & meat’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 15 August [1865] ). By October, Darwin thought he might be …
- … to Jones’s diet ( see letter to T. H. Huxley, 4 October [1865] ). It was not until December, …
- … hour on most days’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 December [1865] ). Delays and …
- … last & concluding one’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 March [1865] ). In April he authorised …
- … press in the autumn’ ( letter to John Murray, 4 April [1865] ). In early June, he wrote to Murray …
- … when I can do anything’ ( letter to John Murray, 2 June [1865] ). It was not until 25 December …
- … of the woodcuts ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] ). After sending the manuscript to the …
- … like tartar emetic’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 January [1865] ). An abstract of the paper …
- … for it is your child’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 19 April 1865 ; Darwin noted at the beginning of …
- … the Linnean Society ( letter to [Richard Kippist], 4 June [1865] ). The paper was published in a …
- … German, he had it translated, and wrote to Müller in August 1865 that he had just finished hearing …
- … letter from Fritz Müller, [12 and 31 August, and 10 October 1865] ; since it is impossible to …
- … clearly understand (l etter to Daniel Oliver, 20 October [1865] ). Darwin was particularly …
- … scientific work’ ( letter to Fritz Müller, 20 September [1865] ), he clearly read Müller’s letters …
- … from sea-sickness ( letter from John Scott, 21 July 1865 ). This may have been unwise: Thomas …
- … & ability’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [10 March 1865] ). Scott took these criticisms, no …
- … again when he had time ( letter from John Scott, 21 July 1865 ); at the time of writing, he had …
Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
Summary
On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher who had studied medicine in London and Paris in the early 1840s, visited Down to consult with Darwin about his ill health. In 1863 Chapman started to treat…
Matches: 5 hits
- … On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London …
- … Darwin wrote that he fell ill again on 22 April 1865 and was unable to ‘do anything.’ Emma Darwin’s …
- … hand). Darwin began the ice treatment on 20 May 1865. In his letter to Chapman of 7 June 1865 …
- … from Charles and Emma Darwin to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865]). Darwin’s condition had been …
- … and George Busk (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [7 January 1865], and letter from George Busk, 28 April …
Prize possessions: To Henry Denny, 17 January [1865]
Summary
Between 1980 and 2018, I was honorary curator of the Alfred Denny Museum of Zoology in the University of Sheffield. One of our prize possessions was a letter from Darwin to Henry Denny, then curator and assistant secretary of the Literary and Philosophical…
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: 22 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in …
- … basis of Lubbock’s book, Prehistoric times (Lubbock 1865). By 1860, Lyell had begun work …
- … material available pertaining to the antiquity of humans. In 1865, he wrote that the section on …
- … not pursue any grievance against Lyell until the spring of 1865. 13 In the course of …
- … C. Lyell 1863c and Lubbock 1861 (and consequently in Lubbock 1865), combined with the wording of …
- … between the end of February and the beginning of March 1865, Lubbock wrote the note which would …
- … received a copy of Lubbock’s book, published in mid-May 1865, he immediately wrote to express his …
- … Ramsay in a note to an article published in the April 1865 issue of the Philosophical Magazine . …
- … thought of the affair ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [2 June 1865] ). Hooker, for his part, could see …
- … for Lubbock’s book ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [4 June 1865] ). A week later he sent Lubbock a …
- … the note in the preface (letter to John Lubbock, 11 June [1865] ). No correspondence with Lyell …
- … him for an opinion ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 July 1865 ), Darwin wrote back ( letter to J. D …
- … and Lubbock had no direct communication after the end of May 1865, each appealing to friends to …
- … Thus, in print-runs after the end of June 1865, Lubbock had cancelled his note at the end of the …
- … of both interested parties. Only one known review of Lubbock 1865 draws attention to Lubbock’s note; …
- … situation was succinct. In his letter to Hooker of [4 June 1865] he warned that no one could do …
- … (C. Lyell 1863c; see letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 June 1865] and n. 13). The third edition had …
- … vii–ix (revised version of last section, printed in August 1865, but dated 1863 on the title page) …
- … of the ‘ Elements of geology ’ 34 [C. Lyell 1865], and the printed proofs were transferred …
- … (see enclosure to letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 June 1865] ). Later, Lubbock claimed that he had …
- … the note which appeared at the end of the preface to Lubbock 1865. He told Hooker, ‘I did not trust …
- … ours’ (letter from John Lubbock to J. D. Hooker, 23 June 1865, in Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, …
How to manage it: To J. D. Hooker, [17 June 1865]
Summary
Sometimes, what stands out in a Darwin letter is not what is in it, but what is left out or just implied because the recipient would have known what Darwin was referring to. It is frustrating to spend hours looking but fail to identify something mentioned…
Matches: 4 hits
- … found in a relatively short letter written by Darwin in June 1865 to his close friend Joseph …
- … this letter was a reply ( From J. D. Hooker, [15 June 1865] ), but there was no mention of any …
- … Indian mutiny. At least three novels had been written around 1865. Suddenly, ‘How to’ made sense: …
- … a favourable review in the Athenæum in January 1865. It had all the criteria for a novel Darwin …
Inheritance
Summary
It was crucial to Darwin’s theories of species change that naturally occurring variations could be inherited. But at the time when he wrote Origin, he had no explanation for how inheritance worked – it was just obvious that it did. Darwin’s attempt to…
Darwin's health
Summary
On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend Joseph Hooker from Great Malvern in Worcestershire, where Dr James Manby Gully ran a fashionable water-cure establishment. Darwin apologised for his delayed reply to…
Matches: 4 hits
- … regular attacks had occurred again in the last week of April 1865, and the third week of May, just …
- … threw up food. In his letter to Chapman of 16 May [1865] , Darwin stated that his sickness was …
- … Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) on several occasions in 1864 and 1865. ‘Bad hysteria & sickness’ were …
- … difficulties reading, see letters to J. D. Hooker, 1 June [1865] and 27 [or 28 September 1865] …
George Busk
Summary
After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until the material was sent, in 1852, for study by George Busk, one of the foremost workers on the group of his day. In 1863, on the way down to Malvern Wells, Darwin had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and Lady Lyell ( letter from J. D. Hooker [2 June 1865] ). …
3.10 Ernest Edwards, 'Men of Eminence'
Summary
< Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of published photographs, Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science and Art, with Biographical Memoirs . . . The Photographs from Life by Ernest Edwards, B.A.…
Matches: 9 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of …
- … had been launched by Lovell Augustus Reeve in 1863, but by 1865 Edward Walford had taken over as …
- … Darwin wrote to Walford, probably in the spring of 1865, to say, ‘I should of course be proud to be …
- … more than one sitting seems to have taken place, in November 1865 and April 1866. Darwin’s account …
- … true Philosopher’. The beard that Darwin had grown by 1865–1866 helped to enhance this …
- … public image – wrote to Emma, apparently in late November 1865, to say that he was waiting for a …
- … which derived from the three-quarter view photograph of 1865–1866 mentioned above (see separate …
- … of image Ernest Edwards date of creation 1865–1866 computer-readable date …
- … Letter from Darwin to Edward Walford, 22 [Jan. – April 1865?], (DCP-LETT-5508). Letter from Erasmus …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin to Hooker (on hearing of Robert FitzRoy’s suicide), 1865. As you are now so …
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
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…
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: 4 hits
- … started in January 1860, and advertised in the press since 1865 with the unwieldy title, …
- … apparently discussing it or showing it to anyone until 1865, when he sent a version of it to Huxley, …
- … a book based on a series of articles that had appeared in 1865. In it he challenged aspects of …
- … vol. 13, letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] and n. 4). Darwin’s wife and children also …
3.5 William Darwin, photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Darwin’s son William, who had become a banker in Southampton, took the opportunity of a short visit home to Down House in April 1864 to photograph his father afresh. This half-length portrait was the first to show Darwin with a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … (DCP-LETT-4707); Naudin’s gushing acknowledgement, 18 June 1865 (DCP-LETT-4863). Letter from …
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: 1 hits
- … Letter 4940 - Cresy, E. to Darwin, E., [20 November 1865] Edward Cresy Jnr. seeks Darwin …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 1 hits
- … precise measurement was bought to bear, a myth. In 1865, Darwin received a letter from Edward …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
