To Catherine Darwin May–June [1832]
Summary
Lists letters received and those sent; comments on family happenings.
The Beagle is back [from Bahia]; two sailors and "little [Charles] Musters" died of fever. In 14 days they sail for Montevideo, then to Rio Negro, then on to where no man is known to have been before.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Emily Catherine (Catherine) Darwin; Emily Catherine (Catherine) Langton |
| Date: | May–June [1832] |
| Classmark: | DAR 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-169 |
To R. W. Darwin 10 February 1832
Summary
Sends a short résumé of his trip on the chance that it will arrive in England earlier than longer letter [158] which he hopes to send by surer means.
He is "incessantly occupied by new and most interesting animals" and thinks he will be able to do some original work in natural history.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Waring Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Feb 1832 |
| Classmark: | DAR 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-159 |
From Catherine Darwin 8 January – 4 February 1832
Summary
News of family and friends, much of it about forthcoming marriages: Fanny Owen and R. M. Biddulph, Fanny Mackintosh and Hensleigh Wedgwood. Charlotte Wedgwood will write to him of her own engagement to Charles Langton.
| Author: | Emily Catherine (Catherine) Darwin; Emily Catherine (Catherine) Langton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan – 4 Feb 1832 |
| Classmark: | DAR 204: 83 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-154 |
To R. W. Darwin 8 February – 1 March 1832
Summary
Writes with great happiness about the first part of the voyage, after his misery from seasickness passed. He finds himself well prepared, the ship quiet, comfortable, and compact; he has already a "rich harvest" and finds the natural history (especially geology) exceedingly interesting. The tropics are full of great beauty.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Waring Darwin |
| Date: | 8 & 26 Feb & 1 Mar [1832] |
| Classmark: | DAR 223: 8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-158 |
To J. M. Herbert [1–6] June 1832
Summary
Summarises experiences since leaving England. "How intimately what may be called the ""moral part"" is connected with the enjoyment of scenery." The loneliness of the voyage.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Maurice Herbert |
| Date: | [1–6] June 1832 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-172 |
From E. A. Darwin 18 August [1832]
Summary
Reports on the commissions CD requested of him [in a missing letter]; comments on English political issues.
| Author: | Erasmus Alvey Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Aug [1832] |
| Classmark: | DAR 204: 93 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-182 |
From Susan Darwin 15[–18] August 1832
Summary
News of family and friends.
| Author: | Susan Elizabeth Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15[–18] Aug 1832 |
| Classmark: | DAR 204: 97 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-180 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 10 th of this Month, & we all did nothing but stare at the unfortunate little Bride of Sir Rowland Hill’s who made her first public appearance there. She looks very childish but rather pretty & pleasant looking. She was the great heiress Miss Clegg whose marriage had been kept secret more than a year by that old beldame M rs Hill who of course contrived it. — After all our plans being settled to go to Osmaston we had a letter …
| letter | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Darwin, Catherine | (1) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (1) |
| Darwin, S. E. | (1) |
| Langton, Catherine | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Darwin, R. W. | (2) |
| Darwin, Catherine | (1) |
| Herbert, J. M. | (1) |
| Langton, Catherine | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Darwin, Catherine | (2) |
| Darwin, R. W. | (2) |
| Langton, Catherine | (2) |
| Darwin, E. A. | (1) |
Reading my roommate’s illustrious ancestor: To T. H. Huxley, 10 June 1868
Summary
My roommate at Harvard College was Tom Baum, now a Hollywood screenwriter. Tom’s full name is Thomas Henle Baum, his middle name a reference to a German physician ancestor for whom the ‘Loop of Henle’ in the kidney had been named. Other than this iconic…
Matches: 1 hits
- … My roommate at Harvard College was Tom Baum, now a Hollywood screenwriter. Tom’s full name is …
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: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
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 …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November …
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, 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 …
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 …
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 …
Schools Gallery: Using Darwin’s letters in the classroom
Summary
English| History| Science English Pupils in Cumbria lead the way Year 9 English pupils at Ulverston Victoria High School spent several weeks studying Darwin’s letters, including comparing sections from Darwin’s ‘Voyage of the Beagle’ to letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … English | History | Science English Pupils in Cumbria lead …
Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was …
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: 1 hits
- … On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher …
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 …
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s daughter Henrietta wrote the following journal entries in March and July 1871 in …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species , …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 1 hits
- … I gave two seeds to a confounded old cock, but his gizzard ground them up; at least I cd. not …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …
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 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, 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 …
