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An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society 1799-1882 Mss.B.D25

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An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society 1799-1882 Mss.B.D25 An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society 1799-1882 Mss.B.D25 American Philosophical Society 3/2002 105 South Fifth Street Philadelphia, PA, 19106 215-440-3400 [email protected] An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical ... Table of Contents Summary Information ................................................................................................................................. 3 Background note ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Scope & content ..........................................................................................................................................7 Administrative Information .......................................................................................................................23 Related Materials ...................................................................................................................................... 24 Indexing Terms ......................................................................................................................................... 28 Other Finding Aids ................................................................................................................................... 30 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................30 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................31 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................35 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................41 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................43 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................43 Other Descriptive Information ..................................................................................................................43 Bibliography ..............................................................................................................................................43 Collection Inventory ..................................................................................................................................44 Calendar of Letters................................................................................................................................ 44 Non-Carroll Darwin Materials.............................................................................................................289 - Page 2 - An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical ... Summary Information Repository American Philosophical Society Creator Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 Title An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society Date [inclusive] 1799-1882 Call number Mss.B.D25 Extent 2.5 Linear feet Extent 2.5 linear feet Location LH-MV-C-3; LH-B-26-2 (OS); LH-SB-Black Case-26 (B D25.160) Language English Abstract One of the most important natural historians in nineteenth century Britain, Charles Darwin provided the first compelling mechanism to account for organismal evolutionary change. Although lacking a coherent model of heredity, Darwin's natural selection has exerted an enormous influence over the biological sciences and since the introduction of Mendelian genetics, had remained the key unifying principle in the discipline. The APS Darwin Papers are a large a valuable assemblage of Darwin's correspondence with scientific colleagues, including Charles Lyell and George J. Romanes. They are included in the print version of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge Univ. Press). - Page 3 - An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical ... Preferred Citation Cite as: Charles Darwin Papers, American Philosophical Society. - Page 4 - An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical ... Background note The profound influence of the thought of Charles Darwin on contemporary scientific culture stems largely from his theory of natural selection, the first widely accepted mechanism to account for organismal evolutionary change. A product of Victorian preconceptions of the order of nature and the nature of change, both Darwin and his theories have proven remarkably resilient and remain a vital heuristic in the biological sciences. The son of the physician Robert Darwin, Charles Darwin was blessed with a pair of illustrious grandfathers from the progressive elite of British Whiggery, the savant and proto-evolutionist, Erasmus Darwin, and the manufacturer of ceramics, Josiah Wedgwood. Born in Shrewsbury on February 12, 1809, Charles entered the University of Edinburgh at age sixteen, intending to follow in his father's footsteps into medicine, but he proved as unmotivated a student as he was unenthusiastic. Repulsed by the experience of attending surgeries undertaken in the absence of anaesthetics, Darwin abandoned his already half-hearted commitment to medicine and in 1827, he left Edinburgh for Christ's College, Cambridge, to study for the ministry. The change of venue did little to rouse Darwin's enthusiasm for coursework, however at Cambridge, he met three men whose enthusiasm for nature sparked his imagination. With the great geologist, Charles Lyell, Darwin undertook field excursions to south Wales and was introduced to the concept of uniformitarianism; with F.W. Hope, he spent the summer of 1829 collecting bugs and beetles; while the botanist John Stevens Henslow encouraged his interest in the natural sciences, but equally importantly introduced him to Captain Robert Fitz-Roy. After receiving his degree in 1831, Darwin signed on as naturalist aboard Fitz-Roy's H.M.S. Beagle on its cruise around the world. Summarizing Darwin's subsequent career would be an exercise in courting claims to insufficiency while guaranteeing inadequacy, yet Returning home from the Beagle in 1836, Darwin began in earnest to write and publish in natural history. His first paper, speculating on the origin of coral atolls, was begun in December 1835, and he began his first notebook on theories relating to the transmutation of species in July 1837, only two months after presenting his coral atoll paper at the Geological Society. Financial pressures were not a concern for the well-heeled Darwin, particularly after marrying his wealthy first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in January 1839, and from the late 1830s onward, Darwin was able to lead an gentleman's life devoted to the pursuit of science, interrupted on occasion by illness and family concerns. Darwin's first major monograph, his Journal of Researches (London: H. Colburn, 1839), was an important record of the geological and natural historical observations made during his voyage aboard the Beagle, and was a huge popular success. Since his visit to the Galapagos aboard the Beagle, however, Darwin had been percolating with ideas on the transmutation of species, an idea that had concerned his grandfather Erasmus before him. According to Darwin's retelling of the events, his ideas began to gel after reading Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, which confirmed his predilection for viewing nature as a struggle for existence in which "favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be destroyed." Malthusian logic, he believed, would lead one to conclude that the end result would be the differential reproduction of animal populations based upon the characteristics - Page 5 - An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical ... each possessed, leading ultimately to speciation. By the early 1840s, Darwinian natural selection was beginning to germinate. Yet still he sat. Darwin's research during the 1840s and early 1850s included brushes with the evolutionist thought of the botanist J.D. Hooker, the cosmic Robert Chambers and others, and in 1842, he sketched out the rudiments of his theory, thinking enough of it to have it copied two years later. His ardor for publishing on the topic may have been cooled by the hostility he saw meted out to Chambers' Vestiges of the Natural Creation (1844), but his attention was also divided -- barnacles and migraines were as much part of Darwin's decades as natural selection. Even the appearance in 1855 of Alfred Russel Wallace's "On the Law Which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species" in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History did little to prod Darwin onward, nor did the intervention of his old mentor, Charles Lyell, speed the pen. It was not until 1858 that Darwin moved forward, having receiving a letter from Wallace informing him that Malthus's Essay had illuminated his thinking on the origin of species, and enclosing a manuscript for comment that outlined a theory with a strong, coincidental resemblance to Darwin's own. Fearful of losing any
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