To Mary Elizabeth Lyell [4 October 1847]
Summary
Thanks Mrs Lyell for barnacle specimens.
Mentions Agassiz’s classification of saurians.
Discusses letter from Chambers on "roads" in Scottish glens; views of Agassiz and Buckland on the glens.
Is reading Hugh Miller [First impressions of England and its people (1847)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Mary Elizabeth Horner; Mary Elizabeth Lyell |
| Date: | [4 Oct 1847] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.63) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1122 |
To Charles Lyell 8 [September 1847]
Summary
Discusses David Milne’s Glen Roy paper ["On the parallel roads of Lochaber", Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 16 (1849): 395–418]. Rejects Milne’s theory that outlet of Glen Roy is blocked by detritus. Impressed by Milne’s discovery of an outlet at the level of the second shelf. Believes this strengthens theory that lakes were formed by glacier blocking Glen Roy. Offers arguments against glacier theory.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 8 [Sept 1847] |
| Classmark: | DAR 50: C3–C6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1116 |
From Robert Chambers 5 October 1847
Summary
Supposition that glaciers made Glen Roy is a dream. Has received three letters from CD on river terraces. Reports on trip to terraces at Belleville. Comparison with Glen Roy.
| Author: | Robert Chambers |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Oct 1847 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 131 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1124 |
To the Scotsman [after 20 September 1847]
Summary
Comments on article by David Milne ["On the parallel roads of Lochaber" (1847), Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 16 (1849): 395–418]. Refers to his paper on Glen Roy [Collected papers 1: 87–137]. Comments on Louis Agassiz’s article ["The glacial theory and its recent progress", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 33 (1842): 217–83]. Cites his own observations on glaciers in N. Wales. Discusses possibility of ice barrier creating lake. Notes objections to theory of an ice barrier. Defends his own theory that the roads are sea-beaches. Suggests questions for further investigation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | The Scotsman |
| Date: | [after 20 Sept 1847] |
| Classmark: | DAR 50: B1–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1121 |
To Daniel Sharpe [23 January 1847]
Summary
Comments on manuscript [? "On slaty cleavage", J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 5 (1849): 111–29]. Discusses phenomenon of cleavage. Will write to J. D. Forbes about DS’s paper.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Daniel Sharpe |
| Date: | [23 Jan 1847] |
| Classmark: | UCL Library Services, Special Collections (PEARSON/10/1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1083 |
To John Higgins 11 December [1847]
Summary
Discusses account. Glad that all is prosperous.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Higgins |
| Date: | 11 Dec [1847] |
| Classmark: | Lincolnshire Archives (HIG/4/2/1/7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1138 |
To J. D. Hooker [5 October 1847]
Summary
Mystified by the origin of coal-plants.
Milne’s Glen Roy theory is absurd but, oddly, it has staggered CD in favour of Agassiz’s ice-lake theory.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [5 Oct 1847] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 108 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1123 |
To Robert Chambers 11 September 1847
Summary
Comments on David Milne’s paper ["On the parallel roads of Lochaber" (1847), Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 16 (1849): 395–418]. CD still believes in marine origin. Rejects barrier of detritus at mouth of Glen Roy. If roads were formed by lake, it must have been ice-lake.
Comments on evidence of glaciers and icebergs in North Wales. Thinks pass caused by tidal channel, not river. Suggests that RC make altitude measurements at various points.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Chambers |
| Date: | 11 Sept 1847 |
| Classmark: | Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology MSS 405 A. Gift of the Burndy Library) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1119 |
To Richard Owen [November 1847–51]
Summary
"I had not heard before of Whench [Whewell?] having scolded you; I am rather glad of it …
What a grand number of novelties Hooker no doubt will bring home".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Richard Owen |
| Date: | [Nov 1847–51] |
| Classmark: | John K. Lattimer (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13833 |
To Josiah Wedgwood III [20? August 1847]
Summary
Discusses the buying and selling of certain railway shares.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Josiah Wedgwood, III |
| Date: | [20? Aug 1847] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.10: 14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1042 |
| letter | (10) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Chambers, Robert | (1) |
| Chambers, Robert | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Higgins, John | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Horner, M. E. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Chambers, Robert | (2) |
| Higgins, John | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Horner, M. E. | (1) |
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 …
