To J. F. McLennan 10 November [1874]
Summary
Will send Alexis Giraud-Teulon’s book [Origines de la famille (1874)], which he has received but not read, if JFM cares to read it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Ferguson McLennan |
| Date: | 10 Nov [1874] |
| Classmark: | R. F. Batchelder (dealer) (Catalogue 44 no date) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9715 |
To John Murray 9 May [1874]
Summary
Recommends that JM consider publishing a new edition of J. F. McLennan’s Primitive marriage [1865]. CD considers it very valuable and not too indelicate.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Murray |
| Date: | 9 May [1874] |
| Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 347–347A) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9451 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … of capture in marriage ceremonies ( McLennan 1865 ); see letters from J. F. McLennan, 5 …
- … top of this letter reading ‘Declined May 11– JM’. CD cited McLennan 1865 in Descent as an …
- … 1865 was published by Adam and Charles Black of Edinburgh. No second edition was published. No reply from Murray has been found, but see the letter …
From J. F. McLennan 8 May 1874
Summary
Thanks for issue of Anthropologia. Would be pleased if CD would write to Murray on his behalf.
| Author: | John Ferguson McLennan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 May 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 21 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9447 |
From J. F. McLennan 13 May 1874
Summary
Bernard Quaritch interested in reprinting Primitive marriage.
| Author: | John Ferguson McLennan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 May 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 22 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9458 |
To J. T. Moggridge 12 June [1874]
Summary
Did not know Duval-Jouve was an evolutionist.
Delighted at JTM’s success with spiders.
On JTM’s experiments with acids on seeds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Traherne Moggridge |
| Date: | 12 June [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 382 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9490 |
To R. F. Cooke 10 April [1874]
Summary
Is glad to have Descent cheaper and sold more largely, but would be sorry to see it printed like the Origin. "The closeness of the lines is the great fault." Fears book might be very thick. "I hear scores of people complaining of the heavy and thick books which you publish."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray |
| Date: | 10 Apr [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 291 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9402 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Principles of geology . In a letter to Lyell of 21 February [1865] ( Correspondence vol. …
- … letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 ). Origin 6th ed. had been published with smaller type and a plainer binding. CD refers to the sixth edition of Charles Lyell’s Elements of geology ( C. Lyell 1865 ), …
From Eliza Meteyard 27 June 1874
Summary
Her memorial has passed and her civil list pension has been increased to £100 per annum for life.
Dr Johnson of Shrewsbury has R. W. Darwin letters.
| Author: | Eliza Meteyard |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 June 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 164 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9518 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from Eliza Meteyard, 17 November 1865 ), and later …
- … 1865–6 ); there were no further editions in her lifetime. Meteyard published a handbook for collectors of Wedgwood pottery in 1875 ( Meteyard 1875 ); no published work on the Darwin family by Meteyard exists and no further mention of a manuscript has been found. CD had provided family letters …
From J. F. McLennan 5 May 1874
Summary
Would like to see C. S. Wake’s paper ["Marriage among primitive peoples", Anthropologia 1 (1873–5): 197–207].
Will return L. H. Morgan’s work [? Systems of consanguinity (1871)].
Murray suggests Macmillan’s are more likely to reprint JFMcL’s Primitive marriage.
| Author: | John Ferguson McLennan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 May 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 20 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9442 |
From Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes 12 October [1874]
Summary
Parish and family news.
Francis Darwin’s marriage; Francis serves as CD’s assistant.
| Author: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
| Date: | 12 Oct [1874] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9674 |
From B. J. Sulivan 23 February 1874
Summary
The Bishop of Falkland says the Fuegian natives’ health does not suffer through increased civilisation. Relates the Bishop’s observations on the state of Tierra del Fuego and its populace.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Feb 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 301 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9311 |
From Francis and Amy Darwin 8 August [1874]
Summary
Describe the Pinguicula species found at Mürren. Have found seeds on some. Their large roots seem to indicate that they do not get much animal food.
| Author: | Francis Darwin; Amy Richenda (Amy) Ruck; Amy Richenda (Amy) Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Aug [1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 139–40 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9595 |
From T. H. Huxley 14 April 1874
Summary
Sends his screed about the brain [for Descent], which he thinks pounds the enemy into a jelly.
Is in good health.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Apr 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 198–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9409 |
From B. J. Sulivan 7 February 1874
Summary
The Bishop of Falkland [Waite Hockin Stirling] is coming to visit BJS, who will question him for CD.
Discusses politics; regrets they have been badly beaten by the Tory candidate.
| Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Feb 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 300 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9273 |
From Eliza Meteyard 20 April 1874
Summary
The memorial failed last autumn. She asks for CD’s signature again so that it may be presented now that there is a new Government.
Her [Wedgwood] Handbook is now in press.
| Author: | Eliza Meteyard |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 163 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9422 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to Eliza Meteyard, [18 February 1869] ). Dudley Francis Stuart Ryder , Viscount Sandon, was vice-president of the Privy Council in 1874 under the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli . Mr Falke has not been identified. Meteyard had written a life of CD’s grandfather Josiah Wedgwood I ; it included an account of the Wedgwood pottery ( Meteyard 1865– …
From J. F. McLennan 3 February 1874
Summary
Discusses the evolution of marriage systems; considers the scheme of development CD proposes: 1. Polygyny and monogamy; 2. Polyandry; 3. Promiscuity; 4. Polygyny and monogamy in recurrence. Explains what he understands by promiscuity. JFM believes that polygyny, monogamy, and polyandry must have occurred in "every district from the first, and grown up together into systems sanctioned by usage first and then law". Considers polygyny necessarily the privilege of the few and, as a system, believes it had less to do than any other with the history of marriage. He sees polyandry as an advance from promiscuity and the stage at which contractual obligations between men and their wives begin.
| Author: | John Ferguson McLennan |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Feb 1874 |
| Classmark: | McLennan 1896, pp. 50–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9264 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to McLennan that has not been found. CD revised this discussion in Descent 2d ed. , pp. 587–91, but made no mention of polyandry as part of the sequence. CD had mentioned polyandry as a consequence of female infanticide, and McLennan’s belief in former almost universal polyandry, in Descent 2: 365. There is an annotated copy of McLennan’s Primitive marriage ( McLennan 1865 ) …
From George Cupples 12 March 1874
Summary
Promises answers to CD queries on dogs.
Enclosure 1: G. A. Graham responds to CD’s questions (transmitted by GC) on greyhound breeding and proportion of sexes reared.
Enclosure 2: J. W. Robertson’s general rule has been to preserve male deerhound puppies in preference to females.
Enclosure 3: Proportion of sexes in dog litters [for Descent, 2d ed.] from W. Forbes.
| Author: | George Cupples |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Mar 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 302; DAR 90: 114–16, 119–26 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9356 |
| letter | (16) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| McLennan, J. F. | (4) |
| Meteyard, Eliza | (2) |
| Sulivan, B. J. | (2) |
| Cupples, George | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (11) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (1) |
| Innes, J. B. | (1) |
| John Murray | (1) |
| McLennan, J. F. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| McLennan, J. F. | (5) |
| Meteyard, Eliza | (2) |
| Sulivan, B. J. | (2) |
| Cooke, R. F. | (1) |
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'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 …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Between 1980 and 2018, I was honorary curator of the Alfred Denny Museum of Zoology in the …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … Sometimes, what stands out in a Darwin letter is not what is in it, but what is left out or just …
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'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 …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 'Hypotheses may often be of service to science, when they involve a certain portion of …
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.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but …
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 …
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: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In 1865 Darwin was invited to feature in another series of …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Design | Personal Belief | Beauty | The Church Perhaps the most notorious …
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, 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 …
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
- … This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific …
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 …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
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 …
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 …
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 …
