Edition of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin

American Council Of Learned Societies, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Introduction The Correspondence of Charles Darwin is making available, for the first time, full, authoritative texts edited according to modern textual principles and practices, of all extant, letters written and received by Charles Darwin. Begun in 1974, the project will publish 30 volumes of edited and annotated letters and responses. The first volume of The Correspondence, covering the years 1821 to 1836, was published in 1985, and by July 2006, fifteen volumes had appeared, bringing the series up to 1867. The planned research to be carried out during the period covered by this grant proposal will be the completion of volumes 16 to 18, from 1868 to 1870, of the Correspondence. In addition, considerable research and editing will be accomplished on volumes 19 and 20, from 1871 to 1872. The Darwin Correspondence Project is jointly managed by the American Council of Learned Societies and Cambridge University Library. Frederick Burkhardt, the founding Director, now General Editor, oversees the project from Bennington, Vermont. Professor James Secord, the Editor, is based in Cambridge, along with the four research and production editors, two computer associates, and a clerical assistant. One research editor is based at Cornell University. Academic Merit Few, if any, scientists equal Charles Darwin in terms of their impact within science and beyond to philosophy, culture, and social thought. His groundbreaking theory of the development of new species through the mechanism of natural selection had enduring repercussions on the way in which human beings see their place in the natural world, repercussions that persist today. Charles Darwin's Correspondence is a prime source for understanding the intellectual revolution in which he was the central figure. Darwin exchanged more than 15,000 letters with correspondents over the 45 years of his active career. The letters reveal the extraordinary extent of Darwin's relationships with other scientists and informants, relationships that constitute a remarkable intellectual network of most of the leading natural scientists of the nineteenth century, and in the aggregate they give striking evidence of how heavily Darwin relied upon correspondence to get his research done. In publishing both sides of the correspondence, the project moves away from the "great man" tradition of scientific history (other large collections of letters often only include one side of the correspondence), to shed light on a much broader cross-section of nineteenth-century society, with correspondents engaged in a variety of occupations and disciplines writing from all parts of the globe. Broader Impact The Correspondence is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in history of science, history of medicine, social history, the natural sciences, philosophy, sociology, and literature. The Project is also committed to bringing Darwin and his world into closer focus for the benefit of teachers, schoolchildren, and the general public. In the presentation of material on the internet, the Project is exploring different ways to make relevant sections of the correspondence available to different interest groups, and also to make available images of the project's various exhibits and display materials. These years 1868-1872 were among the most productive in Darwin's life, and they involved a major shift in the focus of his research toward human evolution, culminating in Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), and Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). More than 400 people, a fifth of Darwin's total number of correspondents, exchanged letters with him for the first time during the five years from 1868 to 1872. His work was undertaken within a rich context of debates about the relations of the sexes, racial theory, human ancestry, and religious belief. These years also saw the beginning of debates about the theory of heredity that Darwin presented in Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication (1868), and his letters reveal a widespread interest, especially amongst European scientific practitioners, in his views on hereditary transmission. The Project is fully committed to the widest possible electronic dissemination of the letters and associated material, in a form that is both durable and flexible. The Darwin Correspondence Online Database (http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk) contains a catalogue of all letters, with brief descriptions of their contents, and extensive biographical and bibliographical material. Complete transcripts of more than 1,500 letters have been made freely available through the Online Database.