To Charles Lyell [5 and 7 October 1842]
Summary
Discusses growth of various species of coral. Explains significance of dead reefs.
Describes meeting of the Council of the Geological Society; the controversy involving Edward Charlesworth.
Mentions conversations with William Lonsdale about Lonsdale’s work on corals and the financial support for his work.
Murchison’s views on glaciation in Wales.
Agassiz’s observations at Glen Roy.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 5 and 7 Oct 1842 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.28) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-649 |
To William Kemp 7 April [1843]
Summary
CD will sent seeds to specialists for identification.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Kemp |
| Date: | 7 Apr [1843] |
| Classmark: | Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 10252/14) (gift of Ruth Cramond and David Cramond) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-667F |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Strickland and Daubeny 1842; see also Correspondence vol. 2, letter from J. S. Henslow, …
- … on 14 September 1842 (see Correspondence vol. 2, Appendix II). Kemp’s letter has not been …
- … letter to John Lindley, 8 [April 1843] ). From 1841 to 1857, Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny served on a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science experimenting on the growth and vitality of seeds. In the committee’s report to the British Association meeting in 1842, …
To Charles Stokes [January–March 1842]
Summary
Returns snuff box.
Sends a microscope for repair.
Makes appointment to discuss some corals that he is sending.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Stokes |
| Date: | [Jan–Mar 1842] |
| Classmark: | DAR 185: 91 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-613A |
To John Murray 17 March [1845]
Summary
CD has heard from Lyell that JM is inclined to publish a second edition of Journal of researches. His agreement with Henry Colburn leaves CD free to publish with anyone. Will have no further relations with Colburn. Discusses details of proposed revisions.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 17 Mar [1845] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 ff.354–355) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-841 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … see Correspondence vol. 2, letter to Susan Darwin, [22 February 1842] . Apparently this …
- … letter to C. G. Ehrenberg, 23 January [1845] ) but they have not been found and may not have been recovered by CD. According to Freeman (1977, p. 33) Henry Colburn printed 1500 copies of Journal of researches . In 1842 …
From John Gould 10 May 1866
Summary
Gives CD genus and species names of the singular humming-bird; distressed by specific name made necessary by revised laws of nomenclature.
| Author: | John Gould |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 May 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 84.1: 20–1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5086 |
Gray, Asa. 1842. Notes of a botanical excursion to the mountains of North Carolina, &c.; with some remarks on the botany of the higher Alleghany mountains. In a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker. London Journal of Botany 1 (1842): 1–14, 217–37; 2 (1843): 113-25; 3 (1844): 230–42.
To W. H. Miller [16 October – 27 November 1842]
Summary
Mentions preparing geological notes for press. Asks whether WHM still has some geological specimens he had examined for CD.
Urges WHM to attend important meeting of Geological Society on 3 December.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Hallowes Miller |
| Date: | [16 Oct – 27 Nov 1842] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.29) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-651 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … was absent. See letter to Charles Lyell, [5 and 7 October 1842] , n. 3; a letter from …
- … letter to J. S. Henslow, [26 March 1838] , nn. 3 and 4. Presumably St Paul Rocks. CD collected the specimen numbers 240 and 246 on that island (DAR 32: 37). However, the ‘beastly rocks’ remained a mystery ( Volcanic islands, pp. 32–3). At a Special General Meeting of the Geological Society, held 2 December 1842, …
From J. D. Hooker [late February 1845]
Summary
Previous letter [missing] on Edinburgh position was ill-tempered. Friends assure him that he ought to be thankful for opportunity to try for professorship.
Reports meeting with Humboldt in Paris.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [late Feb 1845] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 165–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-832 |
To H. E. Strickland 31 May [1842]
Summary
Comments on HES’s Report ["Report of a committee … (on) nomenclature of zoology", Rep. BAAS 12 (1842): 105–21]. Suggests limit be put to changing names that are only partially erroneous to prevent those who detect the error from coining new names and attaching their own. HES’s rule for "authority for a species" is difficult, though on the whole best. Suggests stating it boldly to prevent appropriation of species names by "tacker[s] of two old names together".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Hugh Edwin Strickland |
| Date: | 31 May [1842] |
| Classmark: | Museum of Zoology Archives, University of Cambridge (Strickland Papers) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-630 |
To [William Baxter or W. W. Baxter?] [1842–82?]
Summary
Orders pot of soft spermaceti ointment.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter; William Baxter |
| Date: | [1842–82?] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.536) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11313 |
Matches: 2 hits
From J. D. Hooker [14 March 1858]
Summary
Summary of JDH’s objections to CD’s survey of floras and conclusion that large genera vary more than small.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [14 Mar 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 182–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2240 |
To Francis Boott [3 February 1842]
Summary
"My Dear Sir, I have called on you, to solicit your vote & interest at the Athenaeum Club […] in favour of my brother, Erasmus Darwin".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Boott |
| Date: | [3 Feb 1842] |
| Classmark: | Christie’s (dealers) (13 December 2006, lot 34) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-617F |
Matheson, R. M. 1929. Henry Rayner, 1842–1926: intimate recollections told to his grandchildren, by his daughter, together with a few of his letters and other writings. London: Printed for private circulation.
To Edward Cresy [before May 1848?]
Summary
Obliged for account of change in quality of wool. "Some authors will not admit that climate has any perceptible action."
Hopes his health is re-established.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Edward Cresy, Jr |
| Date: | [before May 1848?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 303 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1545 |
To W. D. Fox [before 3 October 1846]
Summary
The potato seeds were collected in 1835 from tubers in a remote area of the Cordilleras of Chile and were certainly wild. Refers him to Journal [of researches, p. 347].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | [before 3 Oct 1846] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 107) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13809 |
To Leonard Jenyns [14 or 21 August 1846]
Summary
Looks forward to LJ’s volume [Observations in natural history (1846)].
Observations on what the world would call trifling points in natural history are always very interesting to him. Deplores their absence in foreign periodicals.
Is slaving away to finish S. American geology.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield |
| Date: | [14 or 21] Aug 1846 |
| Classmark: | Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-987 |
From Alexander Bridport Becher 1 September 1842
Summary
Francis Beaufort has instructed ABB to order three copies of Coral Reefs.
| Author: | Alexander Bridport Becher |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Sept 1842 |
| Classmark: | United Kingdom Hydrographic Office Archive (Letter Book no .10 (1841–2), p. 510) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-605F |
To A. Y. Spearman 29 April 1842
Summary
The fourth number of part four is now published; the Smith, Elder & Co. account is presented.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alexander Young Spearman, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 29 Apr 1842 |
| Classmark: | The National Archives (TNA) (T1/4723 paper 15949) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-625A |
To A. Y. Spearman 5 August 1842
Summary
The Smith, Elder & Co. account for the first number of part five of the Zoology, now published, is presented.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alexander Young Spearman, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 5 Aug 1842 |
| Classmark: | The National Archives (TNA) (T1/4723 paper 15949) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-637A |
From Daniel Mackintosh 1 December 1867
Summary
Seeks CD’s opinion and references on the causes of terraces in the south of England. He supports sea action as cause, either by currents or on coasts, and has been engaged in a controversy in the Geological Magazine [4 (1867): 571–5] with the subaerial school. Poulett Scrope thinks they are agricultural.
| Author: | Daniel Mackintosh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Dec 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5703 |
| letter | (245) |
| people | (10) |
| bibliography | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (167) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (16) |
| Lyell, Charles | (7) |
| Gray, Asa | (3) |
| Harvey, W. H. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (78) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (30) |
| Lyell, Charles | (14) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (7) |
| Gray, Asa | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (244) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (46) |
| Lyell, Charles | (21) |
| Gray, Asa | (8) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (7) |
| 1838 | (4) |
| 1839 | (3) |
| 1840 | (3) |
| 1841 | (2) |
| 1842 | (27) |
| 1843 | (8) |
| 1844 | (13) |
| 1845 | (10) |
| 1846 | (7) |
| 1847 | (7) |
| 1848 | (5) |
| 1849 | (5) |
| 1850 | (2) |
| 1851 | (4) |
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| 1853 | (3) |
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| 1855 | (6) |
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| 1880 | (4) |
| 1881 | (5) |
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I
Summary
Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared. Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I suppose “natural selection” was bad term but to change it now, I think, would make confusion …
Darwin & coral reefs
Summary
The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
Matches: 1 hits
- … No other work of mine was begun in so deductive a spirit as this; for the whole theory was …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'
Summary
The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of …
Darwin’s Photographic Portraits
Summary
Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the study of Expression and Emotions in Man and Animal, but can be witnessed in his many photographic portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
Summary
This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics. Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the …
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, …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
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,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
Controversy
Summary
The best-known controversies over Darwinian theory took place in public or in printed reviews. Many of these were highly polemical, presenting an over-simplified picture of the disputes. Letters, however, show that the responses to Darwin were extremely…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Disagreement & Respect | Conduct of Debate | Darwin & Wallace The best-known …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …
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 …
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
- … To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But …
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
- … To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But …
