In this section you will find a guide to the documents, books, and collections of artefacts that you might like to consult if you are undertaking research on Darwin and his life at Down House, or want to know more.
Primary Sources
To mark the bicentenary year of Darwin’s birth in 2009, English Heritage launched the full collection of Darwin’s Beagle Notebooks in digital format online, together with summaries of the contents of these intriguing field notebooks. Further material from the Darwin Collection at Down House is being added.
Transcripts and summaries of letters and notes from the Darwin Collection at Down House can be accessed through the Darwin Correspondence Project website described below.
The Darwin Correspondence Project at Cambridge University Library aims to trace, research and publish summaries of all letters written by Darwin, and to Darwin, and to publish transcripts by volume in chronological order.
To date, the project has brought together more than 15,000 letters, and is on volume 18 of a projected 32 volume series. At present, full transcripts of 6,000 letters are available at the Darwin Project with further tranches added as each volume of correspondence is published.
Published works by and about Darwin
Modern editions of Darwin’s publications are widely available:
Darwin, C 1859. 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life', London
Darwin, C 1862. ' On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects', London
Darwin, C 1865. 'On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants', London
Darwin, C 1868. 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication', 2 vols, London
Darwin, C 1871. 'The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex', 2 vols, London
Darwin, C 1872. 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals', London
Darwin, C 1875. 'Insectivorous Plants', London
Darwin, C 1876. 'The Effects of Cross- and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom', London
Darwin, C 1877. 'Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species', London
Darwin, C 1881. 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits', London
Darwin’s publications are also available online at: Darwin Online: The Writings of Charles Darwin on the Web at http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin
Printed sources relating to Darwin
Barlow, N (ed) 1958. 'The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882', London
Browne, J 2003. 'Voyaging', London
Browne, J, Desmond, A and Moore, J 2007. 'Charles Darwin', Oxford
Burkhardt, F and Smith, S (eds) 1985– . 'The Correspondence of Charles Darwin', 18 vols, Cambridge
Burkhardt, F and Smith, S (eds) 1994. 'A Calendar to the Correspondence of Charles Darwin 1821–1882', Cambridge
Burkhardt, F., Evans, S., and Pearn, A. (eds.) Evolution, Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870 (Cambridge, 2008)
Burkhardt, F, Evans, S, and Pearn, A (eds) 2008. 'Origins: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1825–1859, Cambridge
Colp, R Jr 2008. 'Darwin’s Illness', Florida
Darwin, F (ed) 1887. 'The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin' London
Desmond, A and Moore, J 1991. 'Darwin', London
Desmond, A and Moore, J 2009. 'Darwin’s Sacred Cause', London
Freeman, R B 1978. 'Charles Darwin: a companion', Kent
Gautrey, P, Herbert, S, and Kohn, D 2009. 'Charles Darwin’s Notebooks 1836–1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries', Cambridge
Glick, T and Kohn, D 1996. 'On Evolution: The Development of the Theory of Natural Selection', Indiana
Healey, E 2001. ' Emma Darwin: the inspirational wife of a genius' London
Keynes, R H 2001. 'Annie’s Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter and Human Evolution', London
Keynes, R 2009. 'Creation: The True Story of Charles Darwin', London
Keynes, R D 2003. 'Fossils, Finches & Fuegians: Darwin’s Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle', Oxford
Keynes, R D (ed) 1988. 'Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary', Cambridge
Keynes, R D (ed) 2000. 'Charles Darwin’s zoology notes and specimen lists from HMS Beagle’, Cambridge
Litchfield, H (ed) 1915. 'A Century of Family Letters 1792–1896, 2 vols, London
Raverat, G 1952. 'Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood', London
Published works relating to Down House
Atkins, H 1974. 'Down, Home of the Darwins: The Story of a House and the People who lived there', London
British Association for the Advancement of Science Historical and descriptive catalogue of the Darwin Memorial at Down House (1946)
Howarth, O J R and Howarth, E K 1933. 'A History of Darwin's parish: Downe, Kent. With a foreword by Sir Arthur Keith', Southampton
Reeve, T 2009. 'Down House: the Home of Charles Darwin', London
Online Resources
For more information about Darwin’s life and work around Downe and to read the full World Heritage Site nomination document (2009) see the Darwin at Downe website.
