From Thomas Gold Appleton 24 April [1862]
Summary
Sends letter via his brother visiting England. Awaits continuation of CD’s "wonderful book", which excites much interest.
Comments on Civil War which he expects will end slavery.
| Author: | Thomas Gold Appleton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Apr [1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 111 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3517 |
From C. V. Naudin 26 June 1862
Summary
Thanks for Orchids.
Plans to publish soon on hybrids.
| Author: | Charles Victor Naudin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 June 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 172.1: 6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3621 |
To John Murray 28 January [1862]
Summary
H. W. Bates is, at CD’s urging, writing a book of travel and natural history. CD suggests JM might be interested in publishing it. Recommends HWB and his MS highly.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 28 Jan [1862] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42153 ff. 28–29) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3415 |
From J. D. Hooker [19 January 1862]
Summary
JDH castigates the Americans after the Trent affair. The value of an aristocracy. How will CD answer Asa Gray’s letter?
His "remarkable plant" [Welwitschia mirabilis] exhibited at Linnean Society.
Genera plantarum is in press.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [19 Jan 1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 8–11 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3395 |
To J. B. Innes 22 December [1862]
Summary
Family and local news.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
| Date: | 22 Dec [1862] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3872 |
To John Scott 11 December [1862]
Summary
Criticises style of JS’s fern paper [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 16 (1862): 209–27].
JS’s remark on "the two sexes counteracting variability in the product of the one" is new to CD.
Does the female [fern?] plant always produce female by parthenogenesis?
They seem to work on same subjects; CD has much material on Drosera.
Does not understand JS’s objections to natural selection.
Offers to suggest experiments.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Scott |
| Date: | 11 Dec [1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: B37, B49–52 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3853 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1852 and Nitschke 1861a and 1861b (in Botanische Zeitung ), and Grönland 1855 and Trécul 1855 (in Annales des Sciences Naturelles ( Botanique )). See letter …
- … letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. Edited by Francis Darwin. 3 vols. London: John Murray. 1887–8. Marginalia : Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990. Milde, Karl August Julius. 1852. …
From J. D. Hooker 25 October 1862
Summary
Has sent Masdevallia and other plants.
J. J. F. W. v. Parrot’s Ararat [(1834), trans. W. D. Cooley, in The world surveyed in the XIXth century, vol. 1 (1845)] refreshing in its simple faith in the ark.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Oct 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 64–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3780 |
From William Branwhite Clarke 16 January 1862
Summary
Answers CD’s questions on Australian flora, bees, geology.
| Author: | William Branwhite Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Jan 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 172 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3392 |
From Berthold Carl Seemann 24 April 1862
Summary
Encloses a passage from his book, The botany of the voyage of H.M.S. "Herald" [1852–7].
Discusses possibility of publishing work on flora of Hawaiian Islands.
| Author: | Berthold Carl Seemann |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Apr 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 130, DAR 50: E28 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3518 |
From C. W. Crocker 17 May 1862
Summary
Comments on presentation copy of Orchids. Has CD studied the orchid Sobralia?
Cannot get material for hollyhock experiment.
Sends his notes on Primula sinensis.
He is experimenting on Ranunculus.
| Author: | Charles William Crocker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 May 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 108: 133, DAR 161.2: 258 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3557 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1852. Crocker’s query concerning Ranunculus ficaria was printed in the Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette , 7 December 1861, p. 1070. The two responses were printed in the issues for 21 December (p. 1117) and 28 December (p. 1136). Crocker had been making observations for CD on the prevalence of an equal-styled form in this species, which CD had previously considered dimorphic (see letter …
To J. D. Hooker 14 [October 1862]
Summary
Thanks for Aldrovanda reference and Cassia.
Has wasted labour on Melastomataceae without getting a glimpse of the meaning of the parts.
Wants seeds, from their native land, of Heterocentron or Monochaetum.
Is beginning to change his view about rarity of natural hybrids.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 14 [Oct 1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 166 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3762 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1852 . CD cited Hugh Algernon Weddell’s account of ‘naturally produced’ hybrids between Aceras anthropomorpha (a misspelling of A. anthropomorphum , a synonym of Orchis anthropophora ) and Orchis galeata (a synonym of Orchis militaris subsp. militaris , the military orchid) in Orchids , p. 19 n. Hooker had described his observation of naturally occurring orchid hybrids in his letter …
| letter | (11) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Appleton, T. G. | (1) |
| Clarke, W. B. (b) | (1) |
| Crocker, C. W. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Innes, J. B. | (1) |
| Murray, John (b) | (1) |
| Scott, John | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (11) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Appleton, T. G. | (1) |
| Clarke, W. B. (b) | (1) |
| Crocker, C. W. | (1) |
Edward Lumb
Summary
Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, he travelled to Buenos Aires aged sixteen with his merchant uncle, Charles Poynton, and after some fortunate enterprises set up in business there. In 1833…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Edward Lumb was born in Yorkshire. According to the memoirs of his daughter Anne, Lady Macdonell, …
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 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 …
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 …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
'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 …
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: 1 hits
- … On 28 March 1849, ten years before Origin was published, Darwin wrote to his good friend …
3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
Summary
< Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific locale that a family photograph of him riding his horse Tommy takes on a special interest. He is at the front of Down House, the door of which is open; it seems as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction It is so rare to encounter an image of Darwin in a specific …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The ‘historical sketch’ printed as a preface to the American edition ( Origin US ed., pp …
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
- … After the Beagle voyage, Darwin’s collection of bryozoans disappears from the records until …
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …
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 …
Wearing his knowledge lightly: From Fritz Müller, 5 April 1878
Summary
Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it’s hard to choose from many letters that stand out, but one of this editor’s favourites, that always brings a smile, is a letter from Fritz Müller written 5…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin received letters from so many people and wrote so many fascinating letters himself, that it …
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 …
Arthur Mellersh
Summary
Arthur Mellersh was a midshipman (promoted to mate during the voyage) serving on the Beagle at the time when Darwin was travelling around the world. One account suggests an inauspicious start to their friendship; apparently Mellersh introduced himself…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Arthur Mellersh was a midshipman (promoted to mate during the voyage) serving on the Beagle at …
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 …
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘ fiddler & boy …
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
- … Honey-bees construct wax combs inside their nests. The combs are made of hexagonal prisms – cells …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
Fritz Müller
Summary
Fritz Müller, a German who spent most of his life in political exile in Brazil, described Darwin as his second father, and Darwin's son, Francis, wrote that, although they never met 'the correspondence with Müller, which continued to the close of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Francis Darwin, in Life and letters of Charles Darwin , wrote of Fritz Müller They …
