From R. F. Cooke 22 October 1872
Summary
Presentation copies [of Expression] will be ready in a week. Has ordered only 250 copies to have cut edges because trade prefers uncut pages.
| Author: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Oct 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 425 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8570 |
From W. W. Reade 20 May 1872
Summary
His book has received bad reviews; therefore CD’s letter cheers him up.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 61 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8341 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … S. Butler] 1872a). See also letter from Samuel Butler, 11 May 1872 . Richard Francis …
- … letter from W. W. Reade, 16 May 1872 . Reade refers to his Martyrdom of man ( Reade 1872 ). The reviewer in the Athenæum , 11 …
- … 11 S t . Mary Abbot’s Terrace | Kensington May 20. —72 My dear Sir I do not know how to thank you for your very kind letter; …
To St G. J. Mivart 11 January [1872]
Summary
CD believes that StGJM has been unfair in his criticisms and has misrepresented him; he begs him not to write again. "Agassiz has uttered splendid sarcasms on me, but I still feel quite friendly towards him. M. Flourens cd. not find words to express his contempt of me: Pictet & Hopkins argued with great force against me: Fleeming Jenkin covered me with first-rate ridicule; & his crticisms were true & most useful: but none of their writings have mortified me as yours have done …" [See 8154.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | St George Jackson Mivart |
| Date: | 11 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8156A |
From F. C. Donders 26 April 1872
Summary
Royal Netherlands Academy of Science has elected CD.
| Author: | Frans Cornelis (Franciscus Cornelius) Donders |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 232 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8301 |
From John Tyndall 8 June [1872]
Summary
Sends CD a copy of the memorial supporting Hooker’s case against A. S. Ayrton’s interference in the administration of Kew Gardens.
| Author: | John Tyndall |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 June [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 106: C9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8375 |
From William Bowman 31 July 1872
Summary
Arranges to bring F. C. Donders to visit Down.
| Author: | William Bowman, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 July 1872 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8439 |
From Albert Günther 21 May 1872
Summary
Believes many of the species and even genera of the fish family Labyrinthici are products of domestication.
Events at the British Museum.
| Author: | Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 251 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8344 |
From V. O. Kovalevsky [12–17 August 1872]
Summary
CD cannot omit mention of Wilhelm Wundt’s Thierseele [Vorlesungen über die Menschen und Thierseele (1863)] in his book.
Murray could control the number of copies of translation of Expression sold in Russia by the number of heliotypes he will supply.
| Author: | Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский) |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [12–17 Aug 1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 169: 57 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8464 |
From Paolo Mantegazza 23 December 1872
Summary
Ecstatic praise of CD and Expression, which has transformed physiognomy.
Sends his papers on sadness ["Dell’azione del dolore", Gaz. Med. Ital. Lombarda (1866, 1867)]. Sends some observations on physiognomy.
| Author: | Paolo Mantegazza |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Dec 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 39 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8692 |
From Fritz Müller 16 January 1872
Summary
Has no objection to CD’s alluding to FM’s idea that sexual selection has come into play in mimetic butterflies.
Reports observations on other butterflies and on termites.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 142: 55 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8161 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Mivart 1871a . In a letter to his brother Hermann Müller , dated 11 January 1872, Müller …
- … 11 November until 12 December 1871 (Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 201). Doña Francisca was a German colony, founded in 1851, lying between the Sierra do Mar and the coast in the province of Santa Catarina. The main settlement was the city of Joinville, about seventy-five miles north of Müller’s home in Itajahy ( Columbia gazetteer of the world ). See Correspondence vol. 19, letter …
From A. W. Bennett 22 November 1872
Summary
Proposes establishing a quarterly journal for longer, illustrated articles of some popular appeal. Seeks CD’s support.
| Author: | Alfred William Bennett |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 138 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8640 |
To John Scott 26 October 1872
Summary
Acknowledges JS’s excellent letter of 25 September. May CD assume that the gigantic worm-casts were nearly circular when measured before the rain?
That a medical man should always have the place of superintendent seems a piece of jobbery.
Mentions [George] King.
JS’s thin paper renders some words on other side almost illegible.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Scott |
| Date: | 26 Oct 1872 |
| Classmark: | Transactions of the Hawick Archæological Society (1908): 69 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8578F |
To J. D. Hooker 22 October [1872]
Summary
Condolences on death of JDH’s mother.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 22 Oct [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 231–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8569 |
To Alpheus Hyatt 4 December [1872]
Summary
If decapod does not pass through zoea stage, is this acceleration? If hypothetical adult retained zoea characters, would this be retardation? Believes obliteration of growth stages frequently due to natural selection. Most interesting points in AH’s letter deal with senile characters. CD attributes them to laws of growth not selection. Explains degraded characters as result of readaptation to simpler conditions. Believes no innate tendency to progressive development exists.
Hopes AH visits F. Hilgendorf’s famous deposit [at Steinheim]. A. Weismann [Einfluss der Isolierung (1872)] makes good use of Hilgendorf’s observations.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alpheus Hyatt |
| Date: | 4 Dec [1872] |
| Classmark: | Maryland Historical Society (Alpheus Hyatt Papers MS 1007) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8658 |
To Chauncey Wright [11 or 21] April [1872]
Summary
Sends details of Alexander Dickson’s paper ‘On some abnormal cones of Pinus Pinaster’ (Dickson 1871).
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Chauncey Wright |
| Date: | [11 or 21] Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | Joseph M. Maddalena (dealer) (Catalog 16: Spring 1992) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8297F |
To John Murray 7 November [1872]
Summary
Has sent off a few trifling errata [of Expression] to Mr Clowes. Asks about the heliotypes.
Would like to hear about the sale of his books. [See 8616.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 7 Nov [1872] |
| Classmark: | Private collection |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8607A |
From J. D. Hooker 14 May 1872
Summary
More on Ayrton affair. Conduct of Gladstone and the Ministry despicable. They have owned him to be in right but will not raise a finger until exposure in Parliament is imminent.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 112–13 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8327 |
From E. A. Darwin 13 December [1872]
Summary
Hopes to have a visit to discuss proportions to be left to the children under their wills; thinks 5/6 to the boys, 1/6 to the girls who "will have as much as is good for them".
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Dec [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: B86–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8675 |
From J. D. Hooker 8 November 1872
Summary
Writes, as a P.S. to his previous letter, stating his friends have advised him not to answer Owen’s attack.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 133–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8610 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 14 May [1872]
Summary
Thanks for information on sexual colours in pigeons.
Will send latest edition of Origin.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 14 May [1872] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8326 |
| letter | (77) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
| Günther, Albert | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (3) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (50) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (3) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| John Murray | (3) |
| Darwin, Emma | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (75) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (6) |
| Günther, Albert | (6) |
| John Murray | (6) |
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 …
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, 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 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 1874 letters go online
Summary
The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1874 through his letters and see a full list of the letters. The 1874 letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 …
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’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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
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, 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, 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 …
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 …
