To a member of Downing College, Cambridge [19 January 1837]
Summary
Declines invitation to dine at Downing College because of influenza.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | [19 Jan 1837] |
Classmark: | DAR 204: 142v |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-342 |
To John Maurice Herbert [1 January 1837]
Summary
Enjoyed the merry evening with JMH.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Maurice Herbert |
Date: | [1 Jan 1837] |
Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Special Collections DC AL 1/1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-339 |
To William Whewell [10 March 1837]
Summary
CD seeks to decline the Secretaryship [of the Geological Society] by citing his obligation to FitzRoy to write his volume of the narrative of their expedition. His youth, inexperience, and ignorance of English geology.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Whewell |
Date: | [10 Mar 1837] |
Classmark: | Trinity College Library, Cambridge (Add c 88: 2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-347 |
To W. D. Fox [12 March 1837]
Summary
Finished going over his geological specimens at Cambridge, and is now in London.
Describes his plans for writing the journal, and later the geology and zoology of the Beagle voyage.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | [12 Mar 1837] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 51) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-348 |
To Charles Babbage [14 March 1837 – 31 December 1838]
Summary
Would have had great pleasure in accepting CB’s invitation, "whether for beauty or for shells", but has another engagement.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Babbage |
Date: | [14 Mar 1837 – 31 Dec 1838] |
Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 37190: 326) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-349 |
To the Geological Society of London 27 March 1837
Summary
Recommends David Williams’ paper on raised beaches of Devon [David Williams, "Letter … on the raised beaches of Barnstaple", Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2d ser. 5 (1840): 287–8] be shortened and published immediately after Sedgwick’s and Murchison’s paper ["Description of a raised beach in Barnstaple", ibid., pp. 279–86] as chief point of paper is to support their conclusions.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Geological Society of London |
Date: | 27 Mar 1837 |
Classmark: | Geological Society of London (GSL/COM/P/4/2/216) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-352 |
To J. S. Henslow 28 March [1837]
Summary
Publication plans for the account of the Beagle expedition – CD to have the third volume for his journal.
News of naturalists and their interest in his specimens. Queries about plant specimens, including one on whether seeds from Keeling Island would endure salt water.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 28 Mar [1837] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Henslow letters: 34 DAR/1/1/34) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-353 |
To J. S. Henslow 18 [May 1837]
Summary
Plans to apply to Government for assistance with publishing Zoology.
Robert Brown has taken an interest in the fossil woods.
CD is at work on his journal. Has not begun his geology yet. Has seen much of Lyell.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 18 [May 1837] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Henslow letters: 35 DAR/1/1/35) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-355 |
To J. S. Henslow [28 May 1837]
Summary
CD to read paper on formation of coral islands at Geological Society. Lyell seems prepared to give up [his view].
Publication of the Narrative is now definite. Feels he should have published journal after the geology and zoology of the voyage.
Robert Brown, as well as JSH, is interested in edible fungi from Tierra del Fuego.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | [28 May 1837] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Henslow letters: 36 DAR/1/1/36) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-356 |
To John Lort Stokes [after 31 May 1837]
Summary
Asks JLS: "Are there masses of coral or beds of shells some yards above high water mark, on the coast fronting the barrier reef?" [In reference to JLS’s proposed exploration of Australian coasts and rivers.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Lort Stokes |
Date: | [after 31 May 1837] |
Classmark: | Stokes 1846, 1: 331 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-356F |
To Charles Babbage [June – September 1837]
Summary
At Lyell’s request sends his copy of Whewell’s History of inductive sciences [1837] to CB.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Babbage |
Date: | [June – Sept 1837] |
Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 37190: 322) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-358 |
To William Buckland [15 June 1837]
Summary
Describes the two species of lizard [Amblyrhynchus] found in the Galapagos Archipelago.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Buckland |
Date: | [15 June 1837] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-359 |
To Francis Beaufort 16 June 1837
Summary
CD wants to request the assistance of Government to support the expense of the numerous engravings necessary for the publication of the results of the extensive collections in various departments of Natural History during the Beagle voyage. To what quarter should he apply?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Beaufort |
Date: | 16 June 1837 |
Classmark: | The National Archives (TNA) (T1/4524 paper 25824) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-360A |
To William Whewell 18 June [1837]
Summary
Asks Whewell questions on earthquake wave action.
Thanks him for signature [to CD’s request to Chancellor of the Exchequer for funds for Zoology].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Whewell |
Date: | 18 June [1837] |
Classmark: | Trinity College Library, Cambridge (Add c 88: 3) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-361 |
To J. S. Henslow [20 June 1837]
Summary
Upon the advice of Captain Beaufort and with embarrassment to himself CD asks JSH whether he would be perfectly willing personally to take the letter requesting government assistance directly to Thomas Spring Rice [Chancellor of the Exchequer].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | [20 June 1837] |
Classmark: | The National Archives (TNA) (T1/4524 paper 25824) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-361A |
To F. W. Hope [21 June 1837]
Summary
Discusses insect specimens he left with FWH. Asks if he may state on FWH’s authority that a third or a half of the specimens from Sydney and Hobart Town are undescribed – a striking fact, showing imperfect knowledge of the insects in the close neighbourhood of the two Australian capitals.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Frederick William Hope |
Date: | [21 June 1837] |
Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological collections) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-362 |
To W. D. Fox 7 July [1837]
Summary
Has finished the Journal; is readying it for the press.
Adds family news including Caroline’s forthcoming marriage to Josiah Wedgwood III.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 7 July [1837] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 52) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-364 |
To J. S. Henslow [12 or 13 July 1837]
Summary
Has been "cramming up learning to ornament my journal with".
Sends a list of questions on his botanical specimens. Needs answers for Journal of researches, which he expects to go to press in August.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | [12 or 13 July 1837] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Henslow letters: 37 DAR/1/1/37) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-366 |
To John Richardson [24 July 1837]
Summary
Questions about woods in cold, northern climates; about JR’s reference to frozen sandstone; about how far out from the shore the sea may become frozen.
His petition for assistance from the government is in statu quo; he is working at his Journal [of researches].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Richardson |
Date: | [24 July 1837] |
Classmark: | Scott Polar Research Institute (MS 1503/16/1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-366F |
To Charles Lyell 30 July 1837
Summary
Galapagos land birds and reptiles.
No two naturalists agree on any fundamental idea [of species]. "Everything is arbitrary."
Has been with Richard Owen going over the S. American fossils.
Has worked out the non-relation between animals’ bulk and luxuriance of vegetation.
The horse once common on the Pampas. The mystery of the extinction of these animals.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 30 July 1837 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell Collection Coll-203/A1/69: 140–2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-367 |
letter | (50) |
Babbage, Charles | (2) |
Beaufort, Francis | (1) |
Blomefield, Leonard | (3) |
Buckland, William | (1) |
Colburn, Henry | (1) |
Darwin, Caroline | (2) |
Fox, W. D. | (4) |
Geological Society of London | (2) |
Henslow, J. S. | (12) |
Herbert, J. M. | (1) |
Hope, F. W. | (1) |
Horner, A. S. | (1) |
Jenyns, Leonard | (3) |
Lloyd, A. S. | (1) |
Lonsdale, William | (2) |
Lyell, Charles | (2) |
Owen, Richard | (4) |
Richardson, John | (2) |
Shoberl, William | (2) |
Spearman, A. Y. | (1) |
Spring Rice, Thomas | (1) |
Stokes, J. L. | (1) |
Unidentified | (1) |
Wedgwood, Caroline | (2) |
Wedgwood, Elizabeth | (1) |
Whewell, William | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Henslow, J. S. | (12) |
Fox, W. D. | (4) |
Owen, Richard | (4) |
Blomefield, Leonard | (3) |
Jenyns, Leonard | (3) |
Babbage, Charles | (2) |
Darwin, Caroline | (2) |
Geological Society of London | (2) |
Lonsdale, William | (2) |
Lyell, Charles | (2) |
Richardson, John | (2) |
Shoberl, William | (2) |
Wedgwood, Caroline | (2) |
Whewell, William | (2) |
Beaufort, Francis | (1) |
Buckland, William | (1) |
Colburn, Henry | (1) |
Herbert, J. M. | (1) |
Hope, F. W. | (1) |
Horner, A. S. | (1) |
Lloyd, A. S. | (1) |
Spearman, A. Y. | (1) |
Spring Rice, Thomas | (1) |
Stokes, J. L. | (1) |
Unidentified | (1) |
Wedgwood, Elizabeth | (1) |