To John Murray 24 February [1861]
Summary
If JM disapproves of inserting CD’s geological works on back of title-page [of Origin, 3d ed.], he should strike them out. CD cares little. Reminds him to insert "additions and corrections" in advertisements. Sends list for presentation copies.
Asks whether his Journal of researches has sold at all satisfactorily.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Murray |
Date: | 24 Feb [1861] |
Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 f. 100) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3069 |
From Thomas Davidson 3 May 1861
Summary
Sends three tables on the known geological distribution of genera and subgenera of Brachiopoda. Has been continually puzzled by intermediate forms, and is convinced that the greater number of species can be linked together. "Natura non facit saltum."
Author: | Thomas Davidson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 May 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 99: 1–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3135 |
From J. D. Hooker [30 December 1861 or 6 January 1862]
Summary
Glad CD has given up on Acropera ovules.
Doubts phanerogams less different in extreme forms [than Crustacea].
No systematic parallelism between plants and animals.
Offers list of Arctic plants with their colours. Asks CD whether it is useful to add colour to [descriptions of] plants.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [30 Dec] 1861 or [6 Jan] 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 3–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3375 |
To Thomas Davidson 26 April 1861
Summary
Asks TD to carry out research on brachiopods to see whether the forms in one formation are intermediate between those above and below.
Describes unpublished study of spirifers by J. W. Salter.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Davidson |
Date: | 26 Apr 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 372 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3128 |
To H. W. Bates 3 December [1861]
Summary
Thanks HWB for references.
Praises his paper ["Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", read before Linnean Society, 21 Nov 1861, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862) : 495–566] which solves "one of the most perplexing problems which could be given to solve".
Discusses the difficulties of writing and expresses disappointment at Wallace’s book [Travels on the Amazon (1861)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
Date: | 3 Dec [1861] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3338 |
To Thomas Davidson 30 April 1861
Summary
Thanks TD for his letter. Difficulties with CD’s theory are many and great, but CD thinks the reason is that we underestimate our ignorance. The imperfection of the geological record counts heavily for CD. His greatest trouble is weighing "the direct effects … of changed conditions of life without any selection, with the action of selection on mere accidental (so to speak) variability. I oscillate much on this head, but generally return to my belief that the direct [effects] … have not been great."
Is surprised that any one, like W. B. Carpenter, can go as far as to believe all birds may have descended from one parent, but will not go further and include all the members of the same great division. Such beliefs make "Divine mockeries" of morphology and embryology, the most important of all subjects.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Davidson |
Date: | 30 Apr 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 373 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3131 |
To A. G. More 2 June [1861]
Summary
Asks for specimens of Aceras.
Mentions orchid species he has seen. Asks AGM to make observations.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alexander Goodman More |
Date: | 2 June [1861] |
Classmark: | Royal Irish Academy (A. G. More papers RIA MS 4 B 46) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3174 |
To Henry Fawcett 18 September [1861]
Summary
Comments on MS of HF’s address ["On the method of Mr Darwin in his treatise on the origin of species", Rep. BAAS (1861) pt 2: 141–3]. "How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service."
Describes his health.
The response to his views in Germany, Holland, and Russia.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Fawcett |
Date: | 18 Sept [1861] |
Classmark: | Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3257 |
From H. W. Bates 28 March 1861
Summary
Discusses specific varieties, especially geographic varieties.
Comments on the effects of the glacial age on the tropics.
Sexual selection.
Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Mar 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 160.1: 62 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3104 |
From Francis Walker 1 February 1861
Summary
Identifies two dipterous species of parasites [chalcidites].
Was not able to attend to the aphids last year, but will make use of CD’s suggestions and "study as much as I can the inquiry as to species".
Author: | Francis Walker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Feb 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 46.2 (ser. 3): 54–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3053 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … on Diptera for Insecta Britannica (London, 1851–6). Smith identified for CD the bees and …
From H. C. Watson to J. D. Hooker 4 January 1861
Summary
Comments on the travels of JDH.
Genera plantarum a most worthy undertaking.
Criticisms of the Darwin–Hooker understanding of HCW’s views of convergence.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 4 Jan 1861 |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence 105: 205) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3041A |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to India from November 1847 to January 1851 ( R. Desmond 1999 , pp. 96–177). Hooker had …
To T. H. Huxley 22 February [1861]
Summary
Invites Mrs Huxley and the children to spend a fortnight at Down.
MS of Chauncey Wright’s review has not yet arrived.
[P.S. missing from original.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 22 Feb [1861] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 157); DAR 145 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3066 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Darwin had experienced a similar trauma in 1851 (see Correspondence vol. 5). Henrietta …
To J. D. Hooker 20 [February 1861]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 20 [Feb 1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 115.2: 88 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3065 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … there of his daughter Anne Elizabeth Darwin in 1851 (see Correspondence vol. 5). Through …
From Asa Gray 9 November 1861
Summary
Discusses observations of his own and of John Torrey on dimorphism, especially in Amsinckia.
Is trying to find specimens of Houstonia for CD.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 9 Nov 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 110 (ser. 2): 63–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3313 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Anderson had entered Cunard’s service in 1851 ( Modern English biography ). See letter …
To J. D. Hooker 15 January [1861]
Summary
CD’s opinion of minor critics and commentators on Origin.
H. C. Watson’s notion of genera converging is dismissed.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 Jan [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 115.2: 85 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3047 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to have preceded CD by publishing in 1851 the view that all plants and animals had …
letter | (15) |
Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
Bates, H. W. | (1) |
Davidson, Thomas | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Bates, H. W. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
Davidson, Thomas | (2) |
Fawcett, Henry | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
More, A. G. | (1) |
Murray, John (b) | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Davidson, Thomas | (3) |
Bates, H. W. | (2) |
Fawcett, Henry | (1) |
The death of Anne Elizabeth Darwin
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin’s eldest daughter, Annie, died at the age of ten in 1851. Emma was heavily pregnant with their fifth son, Horace, at the time and could not go with Charles when he took Annie to Malvern to consult the hydrotherapist, Dr Gully.…
Matches: 5 hits
- … Darwin’s eldest daughter, Annie, died at the age of ten in 1851. Emma was heavily pregnant with …
- … expired at Malvern at 1 Midday on the 23 d . of April 1851.— I write these few pages, as I …
- … her dear joyous face. Blessings on her.— April 30. 1851. Notes: 1 …
- … Darwin’s reaction to her sister’s death Aug. 1851. Etty nearly 8 years old. She appeared for …
- … Annie's illness and death To W. D. Fox, [ 27 March 1851 ] To Emma Darwin, [17 …
Our poor dear dear child: To Emma Darwin, [23 April 1851]
Summary
Marsha Richmond shares her experiences of editing the very moving letters Darwin wrote to his wife Emma about the death of their daughter Anne Elizabeth Darwin in 1851, aged 10.
Matches: 1 hits
- … about the death of their daughter Anne Elizabeth Darwin in 1851, aged 10. …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 12 hits
- … he explained in the preface to Living Cirripedia (1851): vii, ‘to have described only a single …
- … In both volumes of Living Cirripedia (1851 and 1854), Darwin devoted an …
- … parts of the mature animal.’ ( Living Cirripedia (1851): 25). As a basis for his homologies, …
- … in the various genera of Lepadidae ( Living Cirripedia (1851): 286–7), which he later …
- … the highest classificatory value’ ( Living Cirripedia (1851): 285).^12^ For delineating …
- … the cement glands of the organism ( Living Cirripedia (1851): 20). This association suggested to …
- … feel no hesitation in advancing it. ( Living Cirripedia (1851): 37–8) In Living …
- … belonging to the same species!’ ( Living Cirripedia (1851): 293)—this discovery was unique in the …
- … devoted the first sixty-five pages of Living Cirripedia (1851), and a lengthy section in …
- … by a letter he wrote to Charles Spence Bate, 13 June [1851] ( Correspondence vol. 5), in …
- … mentioned both Coral reefs and Living Cirripedia (1851), but it was the latter work that …
- … to the analogy with plants in Living Cirripedia (1851): 214: ‘Although the existence of …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 24 hits
- … pages of text copied from Notebook C and carries on through 1851; the second (DAR 128) continues the …
- … from Parent to offspring of some Forms of Disease. 1851 [Whitehead 1851]. Packard. A Guide to …
- … [Malcolm 1836] H. Dixon Life of Pen [W. H. Dixon 1851].— Southeys Life of Wesley [R. …
- … Humboldt 1849]. Liebigs Lectures on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Sir John Davies. China …
- … Steenstrup on Hermaphroditismus [Steenstrup 1846]. 1851. Jan. 6 th . Pickering Races …
- … 1850].— April 5 Manual of Geology Lyell [Lyell 1851] —— 30 Annales des Sc. Phys. de …
- … nothing July 16 th Dixon. Pigeons [E. S. Dixon 1851].— Dec. 26. Count Odart’s …
- … Wilkie [Cunningham 1843] [DAR 119: 23b] 1851 Jan 27. M. Martineau. …
- … 1844]. good London Labour & London Poor [Mayhew 1851].— Missionary Life in Canada …
- … July 1 st . Edwardes Year in Punjaub [Edwardes 1851] good 16 Gleig’s Life of Clive [Gleig …
- … 15. Liebig Familiar letters on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Nov. 15 th Wilson Voyage. Scotland …
- … [DAR *128: 182] 83 Jury Report. Exhibition of 1851 on silk-worms & sheep, selection …
- … et de ses ràces ou varietes 8 o . 12. p. 1 Pl. Poitiers 1851. Chez H. Oudin [Mauduyt 1851] Read …
- … of Madeira with list of Birds ( some migratory ) [Harcourt 1851]. Yarrell has (read) Rev d …
- … Horticulture, Floriculture and Natural Science ] (1850? 1851?) must positively be read 96 …
- … 1852] grand illustrated work on Legumes [?Vilmorin-Andrieux 1851–7] 110 [DAR *128: 154] …
- … March 26. Gosse’s Sojourn in Jamaica [Gosse 1851] April 30 Journal of Horticultural Soc of …
- … 1852 . Feb. 1. Emigrants Manual [Burton 1851] March 10 th Hind’s Solar System …
- … Man’s Nature & Development [Atkinson and Martineau 1851] —— 25 Head. Home Tour …
- … of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia ] Vol I to V 1851 M. Edwards. Introduction …
- … —— 13 th Neale’s Residences in Siam [Neale 1851] 22 Sir J. Davis China during War and …
- … 1853] (excellent) —— 23 Howitts Victoria [Howitt 1851] part of (poor) Oct 7 th Sir …
- … 28 th . Delineations of the Ox Tribe &c by George Vasey. 1851 [Vasey 1851]. May 28. …
- … June 8 th Sketch of Madeira by E. Vernon Harcourt p. 1851 [Harcourt 1851] —— 11 Busk …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 5 hits
- … four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and …
- … made to the plates, but even close to publication in early 1851, Darwin told Sowerby, ‘ I like the …
- … books. ’ When the first fossil monograph appeared in June 1851, it was the third part of volume 5 …
- … of the living species; having finished writing in July 1851 , he corrected proof-sheets from …
- … the first volume of Living Cirripedia bears the date 1851, it did not appear until January …
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: 3 hits
- … confusing sub-class of Crustacea, Living Cirripedia (1851, 1854) and Fossil Cirripedia (1851 …
- … dioecious plants from monoecious forms (Living Cirripedia (1851): 214; (1854): 29, 528 n.) and, at …
- … he justified in a lengthy footnote (Living Cirripedia (1851): 293 n.). The problem that bothered …
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
1.3 Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithograph
Summary
< Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged to a series of about sixty lithographic portraits of naturalists and other scientists drawn by Thomas Herbert Maguire. They were successively commissioned over a…
Matches: 5 hits
- … the small impression that can be purchased.’ In 1851 the scope of the project was expanded …
- … in securing the Association’s decision to hold its July 1851 meeting in Ipswich. Furthermore, this …
- … When Prince Albert himself visited the Ipswich conference in 1851 amid great celebrations, he too …
- … Letter from Ransome to Michael Faraday, 6 June 1851, in Frank A.J.L. James (ed.), The …
- … of Science’, dated from Ipswich, Times (3 July 1851), p. 5. ‘Visit of Prince Albert to Ipswich’, …
Alexander Burns Usborne
Summary
Alexander Burns Usborne was born in Kendal, Westmorland, in 1808, the son of Alexander and Margaret Usborne; his father died in 1818 and in his will was described as the purser on HMS Hannibal. His son joined the navy in 1825 aged 16 as a second-class…
George Robert Waterhouse
Summary
George Waterhouse was born on 6 March 1810 in Somers Town, North London. His father was a solicitor’s clerk and an amateur lepidopterist. George was educated from 1821-24 at Koekelberg near Brussels. On his return he worked for a time as an apprentice to…
Matches: 1 hits
- … branch. Waterhouse became keeper of mineralogy in 1851 and keeper of geology in 1856, where he added …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Bartholomew James Sulivan
Summary
On Christmas Day 1866, Bartholomew Sulivan sat down to write a typically long and chatty letter to his old friend, Charles Darwin, commiserating on shared ill-health, glorying in the achievements of their children, offering to collect plant specimens, and…
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 1 hits
- … publications, his barnacle books ( Fossil Cirripedia (1851 and 1854) and Living Cirripedia …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Death of Annie Darwin
Summary
The Darwins' 10-year old daughter, Anne Elizabeth, dies in Malvern. Charles is with her, but Emma, heavily pregnant, has to stay behind at Down.
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Darwins' 10-year old daughter, Anne Elizabeth, dies in Malvern. Charles is with her, but Emma …
Horace Darwin born
Summary
Darwin's son, and ninth child, Horace is born
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's son, and ninth child, Horace is born …
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Summary
George Eliot was the pen name of celebrated Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). She was born on the outskirts of Nuneaton in Warwickshire and was educated at boarding schools from the age of five until she was 16. Her education ended when she…
Matches: 1 hits
- … responsible for the magazine's success at that time. In 1851 she met the philosopher, writer …
About Darwin
Summary
To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But even before the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, he was publicly known through his popular book about the voyage of the Beagle, and he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in his sense of loss when his daughter Annie died in 1851. Darwin was educated at the …