Letters from England
Darwin Letter Friday
September 19, 2008 As Darwin watches the preparation of the H.M.S. Beagle, he gets (understandably) excited. It also turns out that Captain FitzRoy was popular with the ladies. Darwin fears that he will get seasick on the voyage; it happens to everyone. Little did he know how bad it would be, and that raisins were [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
August 29, 2008 Daddy! I wanna go on the boat! The fateful decision is made September 1: Charles Darwin will indeed sail on the Beagle. Here’s some back-and-forth between Charles, his father, and Francis Beaufort, British Royal Navy Captain and hydrographer. Beaufort approved Darwin for the voyage, and his Wikipedia entry alone is testament to [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
Questions, questions. And lots of dead animals sent by post. Darwin was very inquisitive. He had to be. But this letter has a wonderful quality to it. He’s about to go collecting pigs’ jaws to count teeth. After all, that crafty Bechstein just can’t be trusted. Do birds wash their feet? Send out the servants! [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
Man oh man, Charles had a passive-aggressive girlfriend! Charles had taken a liking to Fanny Owen through his Cambridge years, but as he departed on the Beagle voyage, well… She dumped him. Apparently he cared more about his beetle collection than about her. She wished she had given him a pin cushion for his instruments [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
This week: Stinky, stinky, 12-year-old Darwin Charles Darwin, at the age of 12, wrote several letters into a ‘Memorandum book’ while on vacation from school. He was staying at his family home in Shrewsbury, and apparently not bathing much. Ah, the days when washing was a chore! Please be advised that the spelling mistakes and [...]
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