To George Henslow 12 June [1866]
Summary
Returns proofs of GH’s paper ["On hybridization among plants", Pop. Sci. Rev. 5 (1866): 304–13] with his criticisms. Prefers that GH not state that CD has read the proofs.
Does C. V. Naudin really say that ovules (not seed) of hybrid Luffa and Cucumis are imperfect?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Henslow |
| Date: | 12 June [1866] |
| Classmark: | Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (GEN/D/DARWIN (C)/9) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5118 |
To Friedrich Hildebrand 16 May [1866]
Summary
Has forwarded FH’s paper on Fumariaceae to horticultural congress. Comments on its findings.
Discusses forms of Oxalis.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand |
| Date: | 16 May [1866] |
| Classmark: | Klaus Groove (private collection); sold by Venator and Hanstein, Cologne (dealers), 16 March 2018 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5092 |
From George Henslow 7 April 1866
Summary
Sends copies of Science gossip and The leisure hour.
Enjoyed visit.
His criticism of Primula fertility referred to table 2 [Collected papers 2: 56] where weight of seeds produced from good pods by long-styled homostylous cross and short-styled heterostylous cross are virtually identical.
| Author: | George Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Apr 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 157 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5048 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Nature was established in 1865. Published monthly, it was advertised as ‘a medium of exchange and Chit-chat … for lighter and more varied information’, complementing the publisher’s other journal, Popular Science Review (back page of issue 2). Henslow’s article ‘Phosphate nodules’ described the introduction of phosphates as a manure for root crops by Henslow’s father, John Stevens Henslow ; it was published in Leisure Hour , 11 …
To T. H. Huxley 22 December [1866]
Summary
First impressions of Haeckel’s Generelle morphologie.
Has received THH’s [Lessons in elementary] Physiology [1866]
and reread Man’s place.
Asks THH to read revised "Hybridism" chapter in new edition of Origin. Hopes it will change THH’s view.
Convinced of P. S. Pallas’ view of loss of sterility under domestication.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 22 Dec [1866] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 196) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5315 |
To B. D. Walsh [19] April [1866]
Summary
CD has followed Lyell’s advice and avoided controversy over Origin but encourages BDW to attack S. H. Scudder and others who argue foolishly or misquote him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Date: | [19] Apr [1866] |
| Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Walsh 7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5061 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Nature to plagiarize from herself a merely ornamental design’ when millions of other patterns were available ( Walsh 1864–5 , pp. 207–8); this section is scored in CD’s copy. See letter from B. D. Walsh, 13 March 1866 and n. 8. CD had received galls from George Henry Kendrick Thwaites , director of the Peradiniya botanic gardens in Ceylon, in 1863 (see Correspondence vol. 11, …
From James Shaw 7 November 1866
Summary
Thanks CD for copy of the Origin [4th ed.]; makes some observations on beauty and ugliness in nature.
| Author: | James Shaw |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Nov 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 151 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5270 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … nature’ and ‘History of the physical contemplation of the universe’. CD read this volume in May 1848 (see CD’s reading notebooks, Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV, 119: 21a; see also Correspondence vol. 4, letter to Edward Cresy, [ May 1848] ). There is a copy of it in the Darwin Library–Down. Thomas De Quincey wrote in his essay ‘On Wordsworth’s poetry’ that cloud architecture had been little noticed by earlier poets, claiming that there was no distinct sketch of the appearance of clouds before William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (see Masson ed. 1889–90, 11: …
From Asa Gray 7 August 1866
Summary
Appleton’s will not print a new edition of Origin.
AG has read sheets of new English edition [4th] and is much pleased by the passage on Richard Owen in the historical sketch.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Aug 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 153 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5184 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 11). Brace was a nephew of Gray’s wife, Jane Loring Gray . He had informed CD of an article by William Charles Wells , ‘An account of a white female, part of whose skin resembles that of a Negro; with some observations on the causes of the differences in colour and form between the white and negro races of men’; the paper was published together with two other essays in W. C. Wells 1818 . In the historical sketch of Origin 4th ed. , p. xv, CD quoted Wells’s remark that nature …
| letter | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Henslow, George | (1) |
| Shaw, James | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Henslow, George | (1) |
| Hildebrand, Friedrich | (1) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
| Walsh, B. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Henslow, George | (2) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Hildebrand, Friedrich | (1) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second …
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, 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 …
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 …
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 …
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,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letters | Selected Readings Darwin's first reflections on human progress were …
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, 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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I cannot bear to think of the future The year 1876 started out sedately enough with …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 …
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … no little discovery of mine ever gave me so much pleasure as the making out the …
Interview with Randal Keynes
Summary
Randal Keynes is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and the author of Annie’s Box (Fourth Estate, 2001), which discusses Darwin’s home life, his relationship with his wife and children, and the ways in which these influenced his feelings about…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Randal Keynes is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and the author of Annie’s Box …
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: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
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: 1 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July …
3.16 Oscar Rejlander, photos
Summary
< Back to Introduction Darwin’s plans for the illustration of his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) led him to the Swedish-born painter and photographer, Oscar Gustaf Rejlander. Rejlander gave Darwin the notes that he had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Darwin’s plans for the illustration of his book The …
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s daughter Henrietta wrote the following journal entries in March and July 1871 in …
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 …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
Vivisection: first sketch of the bill
Summary
Strictly Confidential Mem: This print is only a first sketch. It is being now recast with a new & more simple form – but the substance of the proposed measure may be equally well seen in this draft. R.B.L. | 2 586 Darwin and vivisection …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Strictly Confidential Mem: This print is only a first sketch. It is being now recast with a …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November …
