‘Charles Robert Darwin’, The Graphic, (29th April, 1882)
On his death in 1882 Darwin was celebrated as something of a national hero. Although often controversial, he was “one of the greatest naturalists of his time”. Darwin’s correspondence is key to understanding how he achieved this status. The letters reveal that - alongside a brilliant mind and set of original ideas – collaboration and a carefully considered editing process were crucial in constructing the great man of science.
NPR.C.53
29 April 1882
© Cambridge University Library
‘Darwin on “The Descent of Man”’, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (July, 1871)
A review of Descent in the popular American journal Harper’s New Monthly, which misquoted the title of the book in the same way as the Bradford Observer.
P900:1.c.1
July, 1871
© Cambridge University Library
‘Evolution and Faith’, The Dublin Review 17:33 (July, 1871), p. 3
The Dublin Review, an influential Catholic periodical, applauded Darwin for stripping a potentially offensive subject of all offensiveness.
CP900.c.48
July, 1871
© Cambridge University Library
‘Men of the Day, No. 33. “Natural Selection.”’, Vanity Fair (30th September, 1871)
Charles Darwin as represented in Vanity Fair’s ‘Men of the Day’ series in 1871. As this image and caption suggests, by the time he published Descent in 1871 Charles Darwin was well known and well respected for his major work On the Origin of the Species, first published almost twelve years earlier.
L434:6.b.83
30th September, 1871
© Cambridge University Library
‘Mr. Darwin’s New Work’, The Bradford Observer (24th February, 1871)
A review of Descent published in the Bradford Observer which adopted the common strategy of substituting the word ‘sex’ for the more palatable ‘sexes’ in the title of Descent.
24th February, 1871
© Cambridge University Library
‘The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex’, Athenaeum (March 1871), p. 276
The delicate and difficult nature of its content made it tricky for a reviewer from the literary journal Athenaeum to discuss certain sections of Descent at any considerable length.
NPR.C.3
March 1871
© Cambridge University Library
‘The Descent of Man’, The Galaxy (March, 1871)
A review from the American monthly journal The Galaxy went one step further, replacing the word ‘sex’ with ‘sea’.
Microfilm.P230
March, 1871
© Cambridge University Library
‘The Descent of Man’, Westminster Review 42:2 (October, 1872), p. 398
The official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, the Westminster Review, also praised Darwin for handling sensitive subject matter in a temperate, cautious and modest way.
L227.b.391
October, 1872
© Cambridge University Library
‘The Home of the Late Charles Darwin’, The Graphic, (1st July, 1882)
On his death in 1882 Darwin was celebrated as something of a national hero. Although often controversial, he was “one of the greatest naturalists of his time”. Darwin’s correspondence is key to understanding how he achieved this status. The letters reveal that - alongside a brilliant mind and set of original ideas – collaboration and a carefully considered editing process were crucial in constructing the great man of science.
NPR.C.53
1 July 1882
© Cambridge University Library
“Christmas Crackers”, Fun (21st December, 1872), p. 261
L992.b.9
21st December 1872
© Cambridge University Library