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List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 8 hits
- … "A child of God" (1) Abberley, John (1) …
- … Bacon, Booth (1) Badger, E. W. (3) …
- … G.-G. (1) Baily, W. H. (1) Bain, …
- … A. F. (1) Bakewell, R. H. (1) Balch, …
- … Valentine (1) Bancroft, H. H. (1) …
- … W. F. (1) Barrois, J. H. (2) …
- … Bateman, Robert (1) Bates, Frederick (2) …
- … Frédéric (1) Baumhauer, E. H. von (2) …
Darwin in letters, 1861: Gaining allies
Summary
The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. He had weathered the storm that followed the publication of Origin, and felt cautiously optimistic about the ultimate acceptance of his ideas. The letters from this year provide an…
Matches: 5 hits
- … formulated the hypothesis of natural selection, Bates was a firm believer in the involvement of …
- … support to date for the working of selection in nature. As Bates boldly stated: ‘I think I have got …
- … enabling them to withstand adverse circumstances. Bates had investigated cases in several …
- … mimicry). Applying the notion of selective advantage, Bates explained such cases as illustrations of …
- … (Bowler 1983, p. 29). Darwin suggested that Bates write a popular account of his travels, …
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
- … Thomas Henry Huxley gave lectures about it, and Henry Walter Bates invoked it to explain mimicry in …
Instinct and the Evolution of Mind
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Slave-making ants For Darwin, slave-making ants were a powerful example of the force of instinct. He used the case of the ant Formica sanguinea in the On the Origin of Species to show how instinct operates—how…
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
- … river Amazons , a book that he had encouraged Henry Walter Bates to write. When the book appeared …
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…
Matches: 1 hits
- … about the consequences of Wallace’s book. Henry Walter Bates urged Darwin to respond to it directly …
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…
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: 15 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second German …
- … changes to the existing German edition (see letter from H. G. Bronn, [before 11 March 1862] ). …
- … in the new edition; in his letter to Bronn of 25 April [1862 ], he mentioned that he was sending …
- … letter from E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 11 July 1862 ). (No American edition …
- … in the fourth English edition, which appeared in 1866. The changes and additions have been …
- … line number. Page xiv, par. 1, line 1, insert before ‘Geoffroy’: 1 …
- … not for what they are used. Page xiv, n., line 10, delete ‘(as we shall immediately see)’. …
- … A well-known French botanist, M. Lecoq, writes in 1854 (‘Etudes sur Géograph. Bot.,’ tom. I. p. 250 …
- … on the modification of species. Page xix, par. 1, line 2, insert after ‘and clearness.’: …
- … feel so profound a respect, expressed about the year 1859 (see Prof. Rudolph Wagner, ‘Zoologisch …
- … Page xix, par. 4, line 2, insert after ‘1860’: 6 and the …
- … From facts lately communicated to me by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, it appears also that there are clear …
- … have migrated from the same great mountain-chain. But Mr. Bates, who has studied with such care the …
- … character and the direction of its mountain-ranges, the Rev. W. B. Clarke has lately maintained that …
- … and fish, between flying possums and flying squirrels, etc. Bates has recently reported how some …
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 0 hits
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 17 hits
- … When I was in spirits I sometimes fancied that my book w d be successful; but I never even built …
- … hopes.— (letter to Charles Lyell, 25 [November 1859] ) The year 1858 opened with …
- … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
- … from the load of curious facts on record.—’ (letter to W. D. Fox, 31 January [1858] ). In …
- … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
- … varieties were incipient species ( Natural selection , p. 145–6): From looking at species …
- … occurred in nature (see letter to Asa Gray, 4 April [1858] , and Natural selection , p. 161). …
- … you have seen,’ he told Hooker in his letter of 8 [June 1858] , ‘yet I have been forced to …
- … much of his research completed, Darwin began in mid-June 1858 to write up the results of his study …
- … coincidence. if Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short …
- … words has been questioned by John L. Brooks and by H. Lewis McKinney, both of whom believe that …
- … day that another letter from Wallace to his friend Frederick Bates, dated 2 March 1858, arrived in …
- … to Fox, ‘& I feel worse than when I came’ (letter to W. D. Fox, [16 November 1859] ). It was …
- … is whether the rag is worth anything?’ (letter to T. H. Huxley, 2 June [1859] ). But as critical …
- … this Essay & that you were the man.’ (letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1859] ). …
- … it is impossible that men like Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, H. C. Watson, Ramsay &c would change their …
- … required a fresh act of intervention to supply the lacunas w h . he himself had made’ (letter …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 23 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …
- … of organic change at the Linnean Society of London in July 1858 and prompted the composition and …
- … exceeded my wildest hopes By the end of 1859, Darwin’s work was being discussed in …
- … ‘When I was in spirits’, he told Lyell at the end of 1859, ‘I sometimes fancied that my book w d …
- … hopes.—’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 [November 1859] ). This transformation in Darwin’s personal …
- … from these years. The 'big book' The year 1858 opened with Darwin hard at …
- … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
- … from the load of curious facts on record.—’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 31 January [1858] ). In …
- … on variation under nature. Having learned in the summer of 1857 that his method for deriving …
- … varieties were incipient species ( Natural selection, p. 145–6): From looking at species …
- … occurred in nature ( see letter to Asa Gray, 4 April [1858] , and Natural selection , p. 161). …
- … you have seen,’ he told Hooker in his letter of 8 [June 1858] , ‘yet I have been forced to …
- … best.—’ Other topics discussed in the letters of 1858 also relate to questions that Darwin …
- … included a discussion of this research in Origin , pp. 163–7, as examples of the occurrence of …
- … much of his research completed, Darwin began in mid-June 1858 to write up the results of his study …
- … words has been questioned by John L. Brooks and by H. Lewis McKinney, both of whom believe that …
- … day that another letter from Wallace to his friend Frederick Bates, dated 2 March 1858, arrived in …
- … to Fox, ‘& I feel worse than when I came’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, [16 November 1859] ). It was …
- … is whether the rag is worth anything?’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 2 June [1859] ). But as critical …
- … this Essay & that you were the man.’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1859] ). …
- … it is impossible that men like Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, H. C. Watson, Ramsay &c would change their …
- … required a fresh act of intervention to supply the lacunas w h . he himself had made’ ( letter …
- … got much more larky since we run two horses’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 6 October [1858] ). …
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, 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: 23 hits
- … Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864 : ‘the venerable beard gives …
- … the long illness that had plagued him since the spring of 1863. Because of poor health, Darwin …
- … from that of the five physicians Darwin had consulted in 1863. In a letter of 26[–7] March [1864] …
- … thus completing the work he had started on the genus in 1862. His varied botanical observations and …
- … more letters of advice from Jenner. In a letter of 15 December [1864] to the surgeon and …
- … his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of 30 November [1864] , ‘the Copley being open to all …
- … five years earlier. His primary botanical preoccupation in 1864 was climbing plants. He had become …
- … leaf, and aerial roots. When his health deteriorated in 1863, he found that he could still continue …
- … produce tendrils’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [8 February 1864] ). Darwin’s excitement about his …
- … & therefore sacred’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 June [1864] ). When Darwin asked Oliver …
- … in the light of axioms’ ( letter from Daniel Oliver, [17 March 1864] ). Though Darwin replied with …
- … which Darwin submitted to the Linnean Society in January 1865. Climbers and twiners …
- … in L. nissolia . Darwin wrote (‘Climbing plants’, p. 115): ‘If it be true that species become …
- … . . .’ When he told Asa Gray in a letter of 29 October [1864] that he was continuing to study …
- … addition to his work on climbing plants, Darwin engaged in 1864 in botanical observations and …
- … were produced. Continuing from these earlier studies, in 1864 he conducted crossing experiments …
- … in causing sterility both within and between species in his 1864 paper, ‘Three forms of Lythrum …
- … trimorphic Lythrum , and when his health permitted in 1864 he drew up the results (see …
- … Darwin remarked to Hooker in a letter of 26 November [1864] that nothing had interested him so …
- … Menyanthes ( letter from Emma and Charles Darwin to W. E. Darwin, [20 May 1864] ), or his …
- … of a strangling fig that had been described in Henry Walter Bates’s Naturalist on the river …
- … its death blow’ with the publication of Origin (T. H. Huxley 1864a, p. 567). In 1864, …
- … had there been any failure of justice’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 4 November 1864 ). …
Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Matches: 21 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of …
- … Prigs’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1866] ). But the crowning achievement of the year …
- … ( Variation ). Although it was not published until 1868, all but the concluding chapter of the …
- … & what is delightful, I am able to write easy work for about 1½ hours every day’ ( letter to H. …
- … of coffee to two cups a day, since coffee, with the ‘10 drops of Muriatic acid twice a day (with …
- … daily to make the chemistry go on better’ ( letter from H. B. Jones, 10 February [1866] ). …
- … the season is over’ ( letter from John Lubbock, 4 August 1866 ). More predictably, however, Darwin …
- … me any harm—any how I can’t be idle’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 24 August [1866] ). Towards …
- … of which Tegetmeier had agreed to supervise ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 January [1866] ). …
- … think, & have come to more definite views’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 December [1866] ). …
- … Hooker’s research on alpine floras, Henry Walter Bates’s article on mimetic butterflies, Lubbock’s …
- … come on those terms so you are in for it’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [ c . 10 May 1866] ). …
- … there are over 200 medallions of Papa made by a man from W ms photo in circulation amongst the …
- … weak in his Greek, is something dreadful’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 December [1866] ). …
- … teleological development ( see for example, letter to C. W. Nägeli, 12 June [1866] ). Also in …
- … species was ‘merely ordinaryly diœcious’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, [7 May – 11 June 1866] ). On …
- … is a case of dimorphic becoming diœcious’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, 20 June [1866] ). …
- … I am well accustomed to such explosions’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 22 June [1866] ). He urged …
- … Darwin’s Orchids and papers on botanical dimorphism, Bates’s and Wallace’s work on mimetic …
- … natural selection, and with special creation ( letter from W. R. Grove, 31 August 1866 ). Hooker …
- … as a ‘thinking pump’: ‘I read aloud your simile of H. Spencer to a thinking pump, & it was …
