From J. S. Henslow 19 April 1841
Summary
Reports observations on the behaviour of captive harvest mouse and dormouse. When descending sticks mouse uses its tail like a prehensile-tailed monkey.
| Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Apr 1841 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 176 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-598 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ladies who delight in pet Dormi
〈 ce〉 & send it to the Annals of Natural History—but I shall not take the trouble to re-write the story— If however you happen to know any one whom you think the account would interest, & would let them see this, He, she, or they may work it out— An earthen footpan would answer as well as a bason—but a real amateur would send to the potteries for a mouse-Menagerie capable of holding a large apartment, & might add the shrews to them— A letter …
To Catherine Darwin 3 June 1836
Summary
Will call on Sir J. Herschel, then take short trip in the African desert.
Horrified at the publication of "the little book of extracts" from his letters to Henslow ["Letters to Professor Henslow" (1835), Collected papers 1: 3–16].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Emily Catherine (Catherine) Darwin; Emily Catherine (Catherine) Langton |
| Date: | 3 June 1836 |
| Classmark: | DAR 223: 35 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-302 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ladies have been cutting down many of the trees (& I shall recollect every one), I never will forgive you. — I am quite delighted at hearing Erasmus is turned house holder; I hope I shall be able to get lodgings at no great distance, & then London will be a very pleasant place. I often however think Cambridge would be better, I can not make myself cockney enough to give up thoughts of a quiet walks on an Autumnal morning, in the real country. — —I have been a good deal horrified by a sentence in your letter …
From John Bush 30 March 1868
Summary
His impression is that male rats outnumber females. Males are pugnacious and polygamous. Gives details of the inheritance of colour in a colony he kept.
| Author: | John Bush |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Mar 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 83: 161-2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6072 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter on the subject of rats until now hoping I might have been able to find notes which I feel confident I made on the very point of your inquiry but which I am sorry to add I cannot put my hand upon. for many years I kept rather a large colony of rats, embracing all the colored varieties of the common rats as well as the old english black rat— my impression is that the male sex predominated, that they are altogether a lecherous race the males irritable & pugnacious & the stronger ones admitting of no rivalry in the Harem and consequently disregarding in any shew of preference evinced by the Ladies …
From Edward Blyth [8 January 1858]
Summary
Zebra-striped asses.
Markings of a Bengal jungle cock.
Refers to some of his own articles on birds in India.
Reports the arrival of the "glorious garrison of Lucknow". The "wonderful superiority of the European to the Asiatic" made the success of the insurrection inconceivable.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [8 Jan 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A144–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2200 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ladies and children. How amazingly the force of character of our countrymen & countrywomen has been evinced in the course of this terrible struggle! The wonderful superiority of the European to the Asiatic, from the days of Xenophon and Alexander even unto now! Against such overwhelming odds, nobody here ever conceived the possibility of the insurrection proving successful,—this grand struggle of barbarism against a higher civilization ennobled by the application of all the sciences. Ever Sincerely Yours, E Blyth— crossed pencil double scored brown crayon 2.8 that on … Wiseman. ] double scored brown crayon double scored brown crayon ‘Letter …
To J. J. Weir 18 April [1868]
Summary
Discusses rapid replacement of mates among birds. "I begin to think that the pairing of birds must be as delicate and tedious an operation as the pairing of young gentlemen and ladies. If I can convince myself that there are habitually many unpaired birds it will be a great aid to me in sexual selection". Notes rivalry of singing birds.
Heard from George Rolleston of the inherited effects of an eye injury.
Disagrees with A. R. Wallace’s idea "that birds learn to make their nests from having seen them whilst young" ["The philosophy of birds’ nests", Intellect. Obs. 11 (1867): 413–20].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Jenner Weir |
| Date: | 18 Apr [1868] |
| Classmark: | Duke University, Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RL.10387) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6128 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letters make almost a little volume on my table. I daresay you hardly knew yourself how much curious information was lying in yr mind till I began the severe pumping process. The case of the starling, married thrice in one day is capital , and beats the case of the magpies of which one was shot seven times consecutively. A gamekeeper here tells me that he has repeatedly shot one of a pair of jays, and it has always been immediately replaced. I begin to think that the pairing of birds must be as delicate and tedious an operation as the pairing of young gentlemen and ladies. …
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Kovalevsky, V. O. | (4) |
| Becker, L. E. | (3) |
| Gray, Asa | (3) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Darwin, Caroline | (2) |
| Darwin, Catherine | (2) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Langton, Catherine | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (43) |
| Gray, Asa | (5) |
| Darwin, Catherine | (4) |
| Kovalevsky, V. O. | (4) |
| Langton, Catherine | (4) |
Lydia Becker
Summary
Becker was a leading member of the suffrage movement, perhaps best known for publishing the Women’s Suffrage Journal. She was also a successful biologist, astronomer and botanist and, between 1863 and 1877, an occasional correspondent of Charles Darwin. …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Becker was a leading member of the suffrage movement, perhaps best known for publishing the …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘ Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 …
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 …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma …
Visiting the Darwins
Summary
'As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…' In October 1868 Jane Gray and her husband spent several days as guests of the Darwins, and Jane wrote a charming account of the visit in a sixteen-page letter to her sister. She described Charles…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating… Darwin often discouraged …
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
- … Discussion Questions | Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth …
Darwin on human evolution
Summary
'I hear that Ladies think it delightful reading, but that it does not do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale.' For the first time online you can now read the full texts of nearly 800 letters Darwin wrote and received during 1871,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I shall be well abused, for as my son Frank says: "you treat man in such a bare-faced manner." …
Darwin soundbites
Summary
From atheistical cats to old fogies in Cambridge, we've collected some of Darwin's pithier remarks - some funny, some serious - but all quotes from letters you can read in full here. We particularly like this one: Will you be so kind as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … From atheistical cats to old fogies in Cambridge, we've collected some of Darwin's pithier remarks …
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the publication of his …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Benjamin Renshaw
Summary
How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended from apes? By the 1870s, questions like these were on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even though Darwin himself never posed the problem of human evolution in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended …
Florence Caroline Dixie
Summary
On October 29th 1880, Lady Florence Dixie wrote a letter to Charles Darwin from her home in the Scottish Borders; “Whilst reading the other day your very interesting account of A Naturalist’s Voyage round the world,” she said, “I came across a passage…of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On October 29th 1880, Lady Florence Dixie wrote a letter to Charles Darwin from her home in …
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 …
