To John Denny 14 July [1872]
Summary
Discusses JD’s crossing experiments with Pelargonium; notes that his conclusions on male prepotence oppose those of Gärtner. Suggests that his observations on differences in fertility of certain varieties of Pelargonium crossed with certain other varieties be communicated to the Linnean Society.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Denny |
| Date: | 14 July [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 96: 114–15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8410 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Gärtner 1849 (see Correspondence vol. 12, letter to Ray Society, [before 4 November …
- … between this letter and the letter from John Denny, 12 July 1872 . Denny had sent …
- … containing Denny 1872b (see letter from John Denny, 12 July 1872 and n. 5). CD later …
- … by artificial fertilisation. See letter from John Denny, 12 July 1871 and n. 9. CD …
- … see Curle 1954 , p. 26). See letter from John Denny, 12 July 1872 . For a brief account …
From Thomas Stanley 24 January 1872
Summary
Wants references to the work of Julius von Haast and James Hector on New Zealand glaciers, which CD mentions in the Origin [6th ed., p. 335].
| Author: | Thomas Stanley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 246 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8177 |
From J. D. Hooker 24 January 1872
Summary
William [Hooker] is in first division of matriculation list of London University.
Other family news.
No news on Ayrton affair. Ayrton has taken staff appointments out of JDH’s hands.
Asks whether CD knows about Zizania aquatica – can hardly believe it is an annual.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Jan 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 103–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8176 |
From George Sparkes 14 February 1872
Summary
Describes some crosses he has carried out with Primula;
mentions the infertility of cherimoyer [Annona cherimola] in England.
| Author: | George Sparkes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8213 |
From Asa Gray 31 May 1872
Summary
Sends, via C. L. Brace, his book [Botany for young people, pt 2 How plants behave (1872)], "your own science adapted to juvenile minds".
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 180 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8363 |
From J. D. Hooker 15 June 1872
Summary
Expects the memorial to make Gladstone frantic. Government regrets granting Lord Derby the correspondence and Lubbock has been advised to postpone calling for it in Lower House. This looks fishy. Is exhausted by the affair.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 June 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 114–15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8386 |
To the Linnean Society [after 12] September 1872
Summary
Note authorising James West to collect Transactions on CD’s behalf.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Linnean Society |
| Date: | [after 12] Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | Linnean Society of London (Darwin Misc. Letters 8) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8501 |
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 |
To Armand de Quatrefages 15 January [1872]
Summary
Obliged for QdeB’s efforts [to have CD elected member of Académie Française].
With regard to stress that QdeB lays on man’s walking on two legs, no one attributes much significance to difference in mode of locomotion between seals and terrestrial Carnivora or kangaroos and other marsupials.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau |
| Date: | 15 Jan [1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 289 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8159 |
To the Linnean Society 12 September 1872
Summary
Instructions for forwarding a parcel and outstanding issues of Transactions due him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Linnean Society |
| Date: | 12 Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | Linnean Society of London (Darwin Misc. Letters 9) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8517 |
From J. D. Hooker 29 August 1872
Summary
Encloses letter and cheque [from John Scott].
Again in thick of Ayrton matter. Tyndall and Huxley have shown themselves equal to the occasion in grasp of subject, tenacity of purpose, independence, and good-will.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Aug 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 118–19; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence 156 f. 1075) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8492 |
To Ernst Haeckel 2 September 1872
Summary
Comments on EH’s criticism of authors in third edition of Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte [1872].
Discusses book by H. C. Bastian [The beginnings of life (1872)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Date: | 2 Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A-Abt. 1:1-52/27) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8506 |
To John Murray 13 November 1872
Summary
Thanks JM for £210 on last reprint of Origin [6th ed.]. Pleased by its sale
and by the success of Expression.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 13 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 291–2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8623 |
From W. W. Reade 3 April 1872
Summary
Sends preface of his book [see 8241]; he acknowledges debt to CD, but does not claim to have given a correct exposition of Darwinism.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 58 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8272 |
To Friedrich Hildebrand 9 February 1872
Summary
Comments on FH’s paper ["Verbreitungsmittel der Compositenfrüchte", Bot. Ztg. 30 (1872): 1–14].
Discusses function of mucus filaments on seeds of Compositae and other plants.
Comments on Eugen Askenasy’s publication [Beiträge zur Kritik der Darwin’schen Lehre (1872)].
Comments on evolutionary views of Carl Nägeli.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand |
| Date: | 9 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | Klaus Groove (private collection); sold by Venator and Hanstein, Cologne (dealers), 16 March 2018 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8206 |
From V. O. Kovalevsky [after 12 August 1872]
Summary
VOK is marking the passages [in Wundt, Menschen und Thierseele (1863)] that may interest CD.
| Author: | Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский) |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 12 Aug 1872] |
| Classmark: | DAR 169: 59 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8476 |
To Athénaïs Michelet 23 May 1872
Summary
Discusses books about cats and crosses in cats. Thanks her for her book on cats.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Adèle-Athénaïs Mialaret (Athénaïs) Michelet |
| Date: | 23 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.417) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8348 |
From W. W. Reade 13 February 1872
Summary
Sending sheets of his forthcoming work on Africa [Martyrdom of man (1872)] with views that differ from CD’s on music and sexual selection.
The Pall Mall Gazette will review the new [6th] edition of the Origin, together with Mivart’s Genesis of species [1871].
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Feb 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 52 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8210 |
To John Murray 11 November 1872
Summary
CD is delighted and astonished at sale of Expression,
and pleased with sale of others, except Descent. He fears a new edition of that work may never be required. Would have liked to bring out a thoroughly revised one.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 11 Nov 1872 |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 276–7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8620 |
Matches: 2 hits
From John Scott 25 September 1872
Summary
Acting as Superintendent of Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta.
Observations on worm-castings in India.
| Author: | John Scott |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 121 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8534 |
| letter | (72) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Reade, W. W. | (6) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Kovalevsky, V. O. | (3) |
| Meldola, Raphael | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (42) |
| Denny, John | (3) |
| Murray, John (b) | (3) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Linnean Society | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (70) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Reade, W. W. | (6) |
| Denny, John | (4) |
| Kovalevsky, V. O. | (4) |
Lost in translation: From Auguste Forel, 12 November 1874
Summary
You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections on your favourite topic—ants. If only you had paid attention when your mother tried to teach you English you might be able to read it. But you didn’t, and you…
Matches: 1 hits
- … You receive a gift from your scientific hero Charles Darwin. It is a book that contains sections …
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, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
Matches: 1 hits
- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts of …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for …
1.2 George Richmond, marriage portrait
Summary
< Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more may once have existed. In a letter of 1873 an old Shrewsbury friend, Arthur Mostyn Owen, offered to send Darwin a watercolour sketch of him, painted many years…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more …
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's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of …
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 …
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 …
German and Dutch photograph albums
Summary
Darwin Day 2018: To celebrate Darwin's 209th birthday, we present two lavishly produced albums of portrait photographs which Darwin received from continental admirers 141 years ago. These unusual gifts from Germany and the Netherlands are made…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1877, Charles Darwin was sent some unusual birthday presents: two lavishly …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I am merely slaving over the sickening work of preparing new Editions …
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, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
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 …
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 …
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, 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 …
Diagrams and drawings in letters
Summary
Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have been added to the online transcripts of the letters. The contents include maps, diagrams, drawings, sketches and photographs, covering geological, botanical,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have …
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Species theory In November 1845, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend and confidant Joseph …
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 …
