The British naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

corresponded with his extended family and with an extraordinarily wide range of people from all over the world. The letters, over 15,000 in all, provide many insights on issues ranging from the origins of key scientific concepts, to religious and philosophical discussions which have continued to the present day. The letters also illuminate many aspects of Darwin and his biography: the development of his ideas; insights into character and health; and private opinions on controversial issues. His letters to the Harvard botanist Asa Gray, for example, show his opinions on slavery and the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. Darwin relied upon correspondence for much of his scientific work, and also used letters to marshal support for his ideas amongst friends and colleagues. The historian of science

Janet Browne Elizabeth Janet Browne (née Bell, born 30 March 1950) is a British historian of science, known especially for her work on the history of 19th-century biology. She taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University Col ...

has argued that Darwin's ability to correspond daily played a crucial role in the development of his theory and his ability to garner support for it from colleagues.

History

Correspondence was central to science in the Victorian era. In his early years, most of the letters Darwin filed away were directly relevant to one of his ongoing scientific projects in geology, invertebrate zoology, and other fields. Most letters, however, were stuck onto "spits", as Darwin called them, and when his slender stock of these was exhausted, he would burn the letters of several years, in order that he might make use of the liberated "spits." This process, carried on for years, destroyed many of the letters received before 1861. Even so, the number of letters, even in these early years, is remarkable. After publication of the ''Origin of Species'' in 1859, Darwin's children convinced him to save a far greater proportion of his correspondence, so that the sequence from the early 1860s onwards is remarkably full. In 1887, five years after Darwin's death, Darwin's son Francis Darwin published '' The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin'' in three volumes, to accompany the publication of '' The Autobiography of Charles Darwin''. This was later followed by two volumes of '' More Letters of Charles Darwin'' published in 1902. For over a century these volumes were the main source for Darwin's correspondence, although they contain only a small proportion of the available total, and many are abridged. In 1974 the Darwin Correspondence Project was founded at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

by the American philosopher and academic administrator Frederick Burkhardt, with the aid of the Cambridge zoologist and historian Sydney Smith. Cambridge University owns 9,000 letters and has obtained copies of over 6,000 additional letters held in other collections. New letters are being discovered at around 60 per year and photocopies of new finds should be sent to the project, which can help identify correspondents and provide accurate dating. Volumes of the correspondence appear at regular intervals from Cambridge University Press, with the content freely available online after four years. Every volume includes a substantial introduction, and the letters are edited to the highest editorial standard. Th
Darwin Correspondence website
also includes extensive additional materials, including resources for school and university teaching. The Darwin Correspondence is among the most substantial editing projects in the English-speaking world, with a full- and part-time staff of eleven.

List of notable persons with whom Darwin corresponded

Entries marked with asterisks denote persons for which 100 letters or more have been located. All of these letters can be found on the Darwin Correspondence Project website. * Louis Agassiz * Alexander Bain *

Henry Walter Bates Henry Walter Bates (8 February 1825, in Leicester – 16 February 1892, in London) was an English naturalist and explorer who gave the first scientific account of mimicry in animals. He was most famous for his expedition to the rainforests of ...

Lydia Becker Lydia Ernestine Becker (24 February 1827 – 18 July 1890) was a leader in the early British suffrage movement, as well as an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy. She established Manchester as a centre for the suffrage mo ...

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

* Charles Harrison Blackley * Antoinette Brown Blackwell * Mary Boole * Heinrich Georg Bronn *

John Burdon-Sanderson Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson, 1st Baronet, FRS, HFRSE D.Sc. (21 December 182823 November 1905) was an English physiologist born near Newcastle upon Tyne, and a member of a well known Northumbrian family. Biography He was born at Jesmond ...

Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (28 October 18064 April 1893) was a French-Swiss botanist, the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Biography De Candolle, son of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, first devot ...

William Benjamin Carpenter William Benjamin Carpenter CB FRS (29 October 1813 – 19 November 1885) was an English physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist. He was instrumental in the early stages of the unified University of London. Life Carpenter was born o ...

Frances Power Cobbe Frances Power Cobbe (4 December 1822 – 5 April 1904) was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, religious thinker, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy group ...

* Walter Drawbridge Crick, grandfather of Francis Crick * Thomas Davidson *

Anton Dohrn Felix Anton Dohrn FRS FRSE (29 December 1840 – 26 September 1909) was a prominent German Darwinist and the founder and first director of the first zoological research station in the world, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. He worked ...

Franciscus Donders Franciscus (Franz) Cornelius Donders FRS FRSE (27 May 1818 – 24 March 1889) was a Dutch ophthalmologist. During his career, he was a professor of physiology in Utrecht, and was internationally regarded as an authority on eye diseases, dir ...

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

Hugh Falconer Hugh Falconer MD FRS (29 February 1808 – 31 January 1865) was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist, and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna, and geology of India, Assam,Burma,and most of the Mediterranean islands a ...

Frederic William Farrar Frederic William Farrar (Bombay, 7 August 1831 – Canterbury, 22 March 1903) was a cleric of the Church of England ( Anglican), schoolteacher and author. He was a pallbearer at the funeral of Charles Darwin in 1882. He was a member of the Camb ...

Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer (24 June 1819 – 11 October 1899), was an English civil servant and statistician. Background and early life Farrer was the son of Thomas Farrer, a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Born in London, he was ...

* John Fiske *

Robert FitzRoy Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra de ...

* Auguste-Henri Forel *

Johan Georg Forchhammer Johan Georg Forchhammer (26 July 1794 – 14 December 1865) was a Danish mineralogist and geologist. Early life and education Forchhammer was born at Husum, Schleswig. He studied at the universities of Kiel and Copenhagen from 1815 to 1818. ...

* Francis Galton* *

Jean Albert Gaudry Jean Albert Gaudry (16 September 1827 – 27 November 1908) was a French geologist and palaeontologist. He was born at St Germain-en-Laye, and was educated at the Catholic Collège Stanislas de Paris. He was a notable proponent of theistic evo ...

James Geikie James Murdoch Geikie PRSE FRS LLD (23 August 1839 – 1 March 1915) was a Scottish geologist. He was professor of geology at Edinburgh University from 1882 to 1914. Life Education He was born in Edinburgh, the son of James Stuart Geikie a ...

Joseph Henry Gilbert Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert, Fellow of the Royal Society (1 August 1817 – 23 December 1901) was an English chemist, noteworthy for his long career spent improving the methods of practical agriculture. He was a fellow of the Royal Society. Life He ...

* Asa Gray* *

William Robert Grove Sir William Robert Grove, FRS FRSE (11 July 1811 – 1 August 1896) was a Welsh judge and physical scientist. He anticipated the general theory of the conservation of energy, and was a pioneer of fuel cell technology. He invented the Grove vo ...

Julius von Haast Sir Johann Franz Julius von Haast (1 May 1822 – 16 August 1887) was a German-born New Zealand explorer, geologist, and founder of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. Early life Johann Franz Julius Haast was born on 1 May 1822 in Bo ...

* Ernst Haeckel *

John Stevens Henslow John Stevens Henslow (6 February 1796 – 16 May 1861) was a British priest, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin. Early life Henslow was born at Rochester, Kent, the son of a solicit ...

* *

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...

* *

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stori ...

* * Thomas Jamieson *

Leonard Jenyns Leonard Jenyns (25 May 1800 – 1 September 1893) was an English clergyman, author and naturalist. He was forced to take on the name Leonard Blomefield to receive an inheritance. He is chiefly remembered for his detailed phenology observations ...

* Charles Kingsley *

Ray Lankester Sir Edwin Ray Lankester (15 May 1847 – 13 August 1929) was a British zoologist.New International Encyclopaedia. An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was th ...

* John Lubbock* * Charles Lyell* *

Maxwell T. Masters Maxwell Tylden Masters FRS (15 April 1833 – 30 May 1907) was an English botanist and taxonomist. He was the son of William Masters, the nurseryman and botanist of Canterbury and author of ''Hortus duroverni''.Desmond, R. (1994). ''Dictiona ...

Patrick Matthew Patrick Matthew (20 October 1790 – 8 June 1874) was a Scottish grain merchant, fruit farmer, forester, and landowner, who contributed to the understanding of horticulture, silviculture, and agriculture in general, with a focus on maintaining t ...

Charles Johnson Maynard Charles Johnson Maynard (May 6, 1845 – October 15, 1929) was an American naturalist and ornithologist born in Newton, Massachusetts. He was a collector, a taxidermist, and an expert on the vocal organs of birds. In addition to birds, he also s ...

Edward S. Morse Edward Sylvester Morse (June 18, 1838 – December 20, 1925) was an American zoologist, archaeologist, and oriental studies, orientalist. He is considered the "Father of Japanese archaeology." Early life Morse was born in Portland, Maine, ...

Henry Nottidge Moseley Henry Nottidge Moseley FRS (14 November 1844 – 10 November 1891) was a British naturalist who sailed on the global scientific expedition of HMS ''Challenger'' in 1872 through 1876. Life Moseley was born in Wandsworth, London, the son of Hen ...

Fritz Müller Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (31 March 1822 – 21 May 1897), better known as Fritz Müller, and also as Müller-Desterro, was a German biologist who emigrated to southern Brazil, where he lived in and near the German community of Blumenau, ...

* John Murray * Melchior Neumayr *

Alfred Newton Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionar ...

* Richard Owen *

Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (10 February 1810 – 12 January 1892) was a French biologist. Life He was born at Berthézène, in the commune of Valleraugue (Gard), the son of a Protestant farmer. He studied science and then medic ...

* George Croom Robertson *

George Romanes George John Romanes FRS (20 May 1848 – 23 May 1894) was a Canadian-Scots evolutionary biologist and physiologist who laid the foundation of what he called comparative psychology, postulating a similarity of cognitive processes and mechanism ...

* Sir John Sebright * Adam Sedgwick * Frederick Smith *

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression " survival of the fi ...

Japetus Steenstrup Johannes Japetus Smith Steenstrup FRS(For) H FRSE (8 March 1813 – 20 June 1897) was a Danish zoologist, biologist, and professor. Life Born in Vang, Thy on 8 March 1813, he held a lectorate in mineralogy in Sorø until 1845 when he became ...

* Bartholomew Sulivan * Mary Lua Adelia Davis Treat * Alfred Russel Wallace * Julia Wedgwood *

August Weismann August Friedrich Leopold Weismann FRS (For), HonFRSE, LLD (17 January 18345 November 1914) was a German evolutionary biologist. Fellow German Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Cha ...

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved ...

William Winwood Reade William Winwood Reade (26 December 1838 – 24 April 1875) was a British historian, explorer, novelist and philosopher. His two best-known books, the universal history ''The Martyrdom of Man'' (1872) and the novel ''The Outcast'' (1875), were i ...

Chauncey Wright Chauncey Wright (September 10, 1830 – September 12, 1875) was an American philosopher and mathematician, who was an influential early defender of Darwinism and an important influence on American pragmatists such as Charles Sanders Peirce and Wi ...

References

* Browne, Janet, ''Charles Darwin: Voyaging''. Princeton, 1995. * Browne, Janet, ''Charles Darwin: The Power of Place''. Princeton, 2002.

Darwin Correspondence Project website

Darwin Correspondence Project Home Page
University Library, Cambridge. (Accessed 2009-05-07)

Darwin Correspondence Project publications

* Volume 1: 1821–1836 (pub 1985) * Volume 2: 1837–1843 (pub 1986) * Volume 3: 1844–1846 (pub 1987) * Volume 4: 1847–1850 (pub 1988) * Volume 5: 1851–1855 (pub 1989) * Volume 6: 1856–1857 (pub 1990) * Volume 7: 1858–1859 (pub 1991) * Volume 8: 1860 (pub 1993) * Volume 9: 1861 (pub 1994) * Volume 10: 1862 (pub 1997) * Volume 11: 1863 (pub 1999) * Volume 12: 1864 (pub 2001) * Volume 13: 1865 (pub 2003) * Volume 14: 1866 (pub 2004) * Volume 15: 1867 (pub 2005) * Volume 16 pt i: 1868 (pub 2008) * Volume 16 pt ii: 1868 (pub 2008) * Volume 17: 1869 (pub 2009) * Volume 18: 1870 and supplement (pub 2010) * Volume 19: 1871 (pub 2012) * Volume 20: 1872 (pub 2013) * Volume 21: 1873 (pub 2014) * Volume 22: 1874 (pub 2015) * Volume 23: 1875 (pub 2015) * Volume 24: 1876 (pub 2016) * Volume 25: 1877 (pub 2017) * Volume 26: 1878 (pub 2018) * Volume 27: 1879 (pub 2019) * Further volumes will appear regularly (to 30 volumes in total), with completion of the edition in 2022. Selections of letters published by the Correspondence Project include: * ''Origins: Charles Darwin's Selected Letters, 1825–1859'' * ''Evolution: Charles Darwin's Selected Letters, 1860–1870'' * ''Charles Darwin: The Beagle Letters'' (all the letters to and from Darwin during the voyage) * ''The Correspondence 1821–60: Anniversary Paperback Set'' * ''Darwin and Women: A Selection of Letters''

Early editions of Darwin's letters

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
Charles Darwin Letters
Two collections of letters written to and by Charles Darwin

References

{{Darwin Darwin Works by Charles Darwin