To Hurst & Blackett 15 November [1863]
Summary
Offers letters to Eliza Meteyard for her book [The life of Josiah Wedgwood (1865–6)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Hurst & Blackett |
| Date: | 15 Nov [1863] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4672 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Offers letters to Eliza Meteyard for her book [ The life of Josiah Wedgwood (1865–6)]. …
- … letters sent to her by CD (see Meteyard 1865–6 , 1: xv, 436). The letters between Josiah …
- … 271). The first volume of her Life of Josiah Wedgwood ( Meteyard 1865–6 ) was published by …
- … Hurst and Blackett in April 1865. It is not known how CD learned that the book was in …
- … Bibliography Meteyard, Eliza. 1865–6. The life of Josiah Wedgwood from his private …
From E. A. Darwin [1863–6?]
Summary
Has signed for the shares. Fears CD’s "good time" has not lasted long.
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1863–6?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: B34 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4726 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 9 July [1863]
Summary
WBT progressing with breeding experiments for CD.
CD making quicker progress with Variation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 9 July [1863] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4238 |
To J. D. Hooker 3 August [1863]
Summary
Tendril plants received.
Has just completed large crossing experiment with Lythrum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 3 Aug [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 201 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4261 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865. ‘Climbing plants’: On the movements and habits …
- … By Charles Darwin. [Read 2 February 1865. ] Journal of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 9 ( …
- … read before the Linnean Society on 2 February 1865 and published in a double number of the …
- … of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 8 (1865): 169–96. [ Collected papers 2: 106–31. ] …
From Armand de Quatrefages [28 March] – 11 April 1863
Summary
Continues to support, in debates at the Société d’Anthropologie, the view that variability of animals and anatomical modifications are produced by environment. Wishes to use CD’s niata cattle example from Journal of researches [2d ed., pp. 145–6].
| Author: | Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [28 Mar] – 11 Apr 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 175: 3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4082 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Bibliography Carpenter, William Benjamin. 1865. Researches on the structure, physiology, …
- … Comatula , Lamk. ) rosaceus. [Read 15 June 1865. ] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal …
- … on the echinoderm Comatula in Carpenter 1865 . See letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 27 …
- … Paris: Libraire Hachette. 1858. 3d edition, 1865. 4th edition, 1870. 5th edition, 1880. …
From Erasmus Alvey Darwin 21 [January 1863]
Summary
Will be glad to have CD.
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 [Jan 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 105: B15–16 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3399 |
To J. D. Hooker [22–3 November 1863]
Summary
Tendril-bearing plants seem to CD "higher" organised with respect to adaptive sensibility than lower animals.
Wishes to encourage John Scott.
Death of JDH’s daughter makes CD cry over his own dead daughter Annie.
Sedgwick’s scientific merit.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [22–3 Nov 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 211 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4345 |
From Hugh Falconer 18 January [1863]
Summary
Jaw with teeth found associated with Archaeopteryx fossil. Waterhouse pronounces it a fish’s jaw.
| Author: | Hugh Falconer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Jan [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 13 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3926 |
From John Scott 16 June [1863]
Summary
Orchid paper in press.
Asks CD to correct MS of his Primula paper [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 78–126].
| Author: | John Scott |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 June [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 94 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4213 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … CD to correct MS of his Primula paper [ J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot. ) 8 (1865): 78–126]. …
To J. D. Hooker 25 [June 1863]
Summary
CD describes first observation of gyratory motion of tendrils: explains its adaptive function is to find objects to hold on to.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 25 [June 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 197 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4221 |
To Asa Gray 4 August [1863]
Summary
Anticipated AG’s attitude on design in orchids. Does he not think that the variations that gave rise to fancy pigeon varieties were accidental?
Has been working hard at Lythrum
and spontaneous movements of tendrils.
Defends Drosera as a "sagacious animal" but does not know whether he will ever publish on it.
Comments on political situation in U. S.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 4 Aug [1863] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (83) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4262 |
From Isaac Anderson-Henry 17 April 1863
Summary
Has done Primula polyanthus experiment CD suggested.
| Author: | Isaac Anderson; Isaac Anderson Henry |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Apr 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 64 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4105 |
From George Bentham [c. 14 April 1863]
Summary
Asks CD whether he knows of "anything worth looking at" that has appeared abroad on his theory of the origin of species.
| Author: | George Bentham |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. 14 Apr 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 155 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4096 |
To J. D. Hooker 1 July [1863]
Summary
Describes experiments on rotation of tendrils and shoots.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 July [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 198 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4227 |
To Charles Victor Naudin 7 February 1863
Summary
Thanks for informative letter of 2 February. CD is glad to have CVN’s opinion on the crossing of varieties of melons,
has made use of his memoir on the Cucurbitaceae ["Cucurbitacées cultivées au Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle en 1862", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 18 (1863): 159–208]
and anticipates with great interest his work on hybridisation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Victor Naudin |
| Date: | 7 Feb 1863 |
| Classmark: | Progressus rei botanicæ 4 (1913): 94 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3972 |
From W. E. Darwin 21 August [1863]
Summary
Has signed and forwarded some orders.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 Aug [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 95 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4271 |
From T. W. Woodbury 17 March 1863
Summary
Bee species of different sizes build cells the same size.
| Author: | Thomas White Woodbury |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Mar 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 150 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4049 |
From William Bowman 31 January [1863]
Summary
Will supply CD with information "as far as my knowledge extends".
Suggests CD visit him.
| Author: | William Bowman, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Jan [1863] |
| Classmark: | Sir John Paget Bowman (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4988 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Hampstead ( Post Office London directory 1865). CD may have met with Bowman during his …
From T. H. Huxley 2 July 1863
Summary
Too busy to examine specimen. Will ask W. H. Flower to do it. Long catalogue of what keeps him busy and concerned.
C. Carter Blake, "a jackal of Owen’s", is the reviewer in Edinburgh Review and Anthropological Review [see 4223]. Has sent back his diploma of Hon. Fellowship to Anthropological Society.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 July 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 298 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4228 |
To J. D. Hooker 26 [July 1863]
Summary
Asa Gray writes as if Civil War were a holy war.
J. E. Renan on Jesus [Vie de Jésus (1863)].
Literature on tendrils of Cucurbita is contradictory.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 26 [July 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 203 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4254 |
| letter | (56) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Crüger, Hermann | (3) |
| Scott, John | (3) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (29) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (10) |
| Scott, John | (4) |
| Gray, Asa | (3) |
| Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (54) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (14) |
| Scott, John | (7) |
| Gray, Asa | (4) |
| Crüger, Hermann | (3) |
Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments
Summary
The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…
Matches: 29 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The …
- … However, several smaller projects came to fruition in 1865, including the publication of his long …
- … of Hugh Falconer Darwin’s first letter to Hooker of 1865 suggests that the family had had a …
- … the house jolly’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] ). Darwin was ready to submit his …
- … letter from Hugh Falconer to Erasmus Alvey Darwin, 3 January 1865 ). Erasmus forwarded his letters …
- … laboured in vain’ ( letter to Hugh Falconer, 6 January [1865] ). Sic transit gloria …
- … the world goes.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 February [1865] ). However, Hooker, at the time …
- … are unalloyed’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 February 1865 ). Darwin, now ‘haunted’ by …
- … with a vengeance’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] ). Continuing ill-health …
- … to try anyone’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] ). He particularly hated being ill …
- … of life. He wrote to Charles Lyell on 22 January [1865] , ‘unfortunately reading makes my head …
- … it up by early July ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865] ). In July, he consulted …
- … bread & meat’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 15 August [1865] ). By October, Darwin thought he might be …
- … to Jones’s diet ( see letter to T. H. Huxley, 4 October [1865] ). It was not until December, …
- … hour on most days’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 December [1865] ). Delays and …
- … last & concluding one’ ( letter to John Murray, 31 March [1865] ). In April he authorised …
- … press in the autumn’ ( letter to John Murray, 4 April [1865] ). In early June, he wrote to Murray …
- … when I can do anything’ ( letter to John Murray, 2 June [1865] ). It was not until 25 December …
- … of the woodcuts ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 January [1865] ). After sending the manuscript to the …
- … like tartar emetic’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 January [1865] ). An abstract of the paper …
- … for it is your child’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 19 April 1865 ; Darwin noted at the beginning of …
- … the Linnean Society ( letter to [Richard Kippist], 4 June [1865] ). The paper was published in a …
- … German, he had it translated, and wrote to Müller in August 1865 that he had just finished hearing …
- … letter from Fritz Müller, [12 and 31 August, and 10 October 1865] ; since it is impossible to …
- … clearly understand (l etter to Daniel Oliver, 20 October [1865] ). Darwin was particularly …
- … scientific work’ ( letter to Fritz Müller, 20 September [1865] ), he clearly read Müller’s letters …
- … from sea-sickness ( letter from John Scott, 21 July 1865 ). This may have been unwise: Thomas …
- … & ability’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [10 March 1865] ). Scott took these criticisms, no …
- … again when he had time ( letter from John Scott, 21 July 1865 ); at the time of writing, he had …
Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
Summary
On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher who had studied medicine in London and Paris in the early 1840s, visited Down to consult with Darwin about his ill health. In 1863 Chapman started to treat…
Matches: 5 hits
- … On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London …
- … Darwin wrote that he fell ill again on 22 April 1865 and was unable to ‘do anything.’ Emma Darwin’s …
- … hand). Darwin began the ice treatment on 20 May 1865. In his letter to Chapman of 7 June 1865 …
- … from Charles and Emma Darwin to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865]). Darwin’s condition had been …
- … and George Busk (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [7 January 1865], and letter from George Busk, 28 April …
Prize possessions: To Henry Denny, 17 January [1865]
Summary
Between 1980 and 2018, I was honorary curator of the Alfred Denny Museum of Zoology in the University of Sheffield. One of our prize possessions was a letter from Darwin to Henry Denny, then curator and assistant secretary of the Literary and Philosophical…
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: 22 hits
- … In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in …
- … basis of Lubbock’s book, Prehistoric times (Lubbock 1865). By 1860, Lyell had begun work …
- … material available pertaining to the antiquity of humans. In 1865, he wrote that the section on …
- … not pursue any grievance against Lyell until the spring of 1865. 13 In the course of …
- … C. Lyell 1863c and Lubbock 1861 (and consequently in Lubbock 1865), combined with the wording of …
- … between the end of February and the beginning of March 1865, Lubbock wrote the note which would …
- … received a copy of Lubbock’s book, published in mid-May 1865, he immediately wrote to express his …
- … Ramsay in a note to an article published in the April 1865 issue of the Philosophical Magazine . …
- … thought of the affair ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [2 June 1865] ). Hooker, for his part, could see …
- … for Lubbock’s book ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [4 June 1865] ). A week later he sent Lubbock a …
- … the note in the preface (letter to John Lubbock, 11 June [1865] ). No correspondence with Lyell …
- … him for an opinion ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 July 1865 ), Darwin wrote back ( letter to J. D …
- … and Lubbock had no direct communication after the end of May 1865, each appealing to friends to …
- … Thus, in print-runs after the end of June 1865, Lubbock had cancelled his note at the end of the …
- … of both interested parties. Only one known review of Lubbock 1865 draws attention to Lubbock’s note; …
- … situation was succinct. In his letter to Hooker of [4 June 1865] he warned that no one could do …
- … (C. Lyell 1863c; see letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 June 1865] and n. 13). The third edition had …
- … vii–ix (revised version of last section, printed in August 1865, but dated 1863 on the title page) …
- … of the ‘ Elements of geology ’ 34 [C. Lyell 1865], and the printed proofs were transferred …
- … (see enclosure to letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 June 1865] ). Later, Lubbock claimed that he had …
- … the note which appeared at the end of the preface to Lubbock 1865. He told Hooker, ‘I did not trust …
- … ours’ (letter from John Lubbock to J. D. Hooker, 23 June 1865, in Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, …
How to manage it: To J. D. Hooker, [17 June 1865]
Summary
Sometimes, what stands out in a Darwin letter is not what is in it, but what is left out or just implied because the recipient would have known what Darwin was referring to. It is frustrating to spend hours looking but fail to identify something mentioned…
Matches: 4 hits
- … found in a relatively short letter written by Darwin in June 1865 to his close friend Joseph …
- … this letter was a reply ( From J. D. Hooker, [15 June 1865] ), but there was no mention of any …
- … Indian mutiny. At least three novels had been written around 1865. Suddenly, ‘How to’ made sense: …
- … a favourable review in the Athenæum in January 1865. It had all the criteria for a novel Darwin …
Inheritance
Summary
It was crucial to Darwin’s theories of species change that naturally occurring variations could be inherited. But at the time when he wrote Origin, he had no explanation for how inheritance worked – it was just obvious that it did. Darwin’s attempt to…
Darwin's health
Summary
On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend Joseph Hooker from Great Malvern in Worcestershire, where Dr James Manby Gully ran a fashionable water-cure establishment. Darwin apologised for his delayed reply to…
Matches: 4 hits
- … regular attacks had occurred again in the last week of April 1865, and the third week of May, just …
- … threw up food. In his letter to Chapman of 16 May [1865] , Darwin stated that his sickness was …
- … Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) on several occasions in 1864 and 1865. ‘Bad hysteria & sickness’ were …
- … difficulties reading, see letters to J. D. Hooker, 1 June [1865] and 27 [or 28 September 1865] …
George Busk
Summary
After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until the material was sent, in 1852, for study by George Busk, one of the foremost workers on the group of his day. In 1863, on the way down to Malvern Wells, Darwin had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and Lady Lyell ( letter from J. D. Hooker [2 June 1865] ). …
3.10 Ernest Edwards, 'Men of Eminence'
Summary
< Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of published photographs, Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science and Art, with Biographical Memoirs . . . The Photographs from Life by Ernest Edwards, B.A.…
Matches: 9 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of …
- … had been launched by Lovell Augustus Reeve in 1863, but by 1865 Edward Walford had taken over as …
- … Darwin wrote to Walford, probably in the spring of 1865, to say, ‘I should of course be proud to be …
- … more than one sitting seems to have taken place, in November 1865 and April 1866. Darwin’s account …
- … true Philosopher’. The beard that Darwin had grown by 1865–1866 helped to enhance this …
- … public image – wrote to Emma, apparently in late November 1865, to say that he was waiting for a …
- … which derived from the three-quarter view photograph of 1865–1866 mentioned above (see separate …
- … of image Ernest Edwards date of creation 1865–1866 computer-readable date …
- … Letter from Darwin to Edward Walford, 22 [Jan. – April 1865?], (DCP-LETT-5508). Letter from Erasmus …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin to Hooker (on hearing of Robert FitzRoy’s suicide), 1865. As you are now so …
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
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…
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
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, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 4 hits
- … started in January 1860, and advertised in the press since 1865 with the unwieldy title, …
- … apparently discussing it or showing it to anyone until 1865, when he sent a version of it to Huxley, …
- … a book based on a series of articles that had appeared in 1865. In it he challenged aspects of …
- … vol. 13, letter to J. D. Hooker, 9 February [1865] and n. 4). Darwin’s wife and children also …
3.5 William Darwin, photo 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction Darwin’s son William, who had become a banker in Southampton, took the opportunity of a short visit home to Down House in April 1864 to photograph his father afresh. This half-length portrait was the first to show Darwin with a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … (DCP-LETT-4707); Naudin’s gushing acknowledgement, 18 June 1865 (DCP-LETT-4863). Letter from …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 4940 - Cresy, E. to Darwin, E., [20 November 1865] Edward Cresy Jnr. seeks Darwin …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 1 hits
- … precise measurement was bought to bear, a myth. In 1865, Darwin received a letter from Edward …
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,…
