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 (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.
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin is one of the most significant editorial projects ever undertaken concerning a major scientist and intellectual. It makes 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 (1809–1882). Following a comprehensive worldwide search, over 15,000 letters have been located. This figure includes the letters written to Darwin. Both sides of the correspondence are being published in order to provide as much information as possible. To date, nineteen of a projected thirty volumes have been published, making available all letters up to and including the year 1871, the year in which Darwin published his epoch-making Descent of Man. Very few of the letters in the most recent volumes have been published before, and they provide surprising insights into Darwin's thought and his intellectual environment. The correspondence brings to light the work of many men or women who would otherwise be unknown to us, and reveals the scientific, intellectual, and spiritual context of evolutionary thought. As such it promotes a better understanding of the scientific context of evolution and the doubts, fears, and aspirations faced by society in the light of Darwin’s ideas, and is invaluable source material for our own discussions about evolution today. The National Science Foundation has supported the Darwin Correspondence Project since its inception in 1975. The nature of that support has helped established the broad scope and high editorial standards of the edition, now a model for similar projects, and has shaped the growth and development of the enterprise, so that today it goes far beyond an editing project and is fully engaged with the wider academic community, and, through the provision of web-based contextual and educational resources, with a global public audience. The edition will be completed in 2022. The project has been a pioneer in making its results freely available over the internet. In addition to summaries of all known letters, the complete texts, and notes, of 7000 letters published in volumes 1 to 16 are all currently available online for free (www.darwinproject.ac.uk). Further letters (and the correspondence as a whole) are being made freely available on a rolling basis through an agreement with the publisher, Cambridge University Press. This online database has proved to be of great interest to scholars, students, and the general public. The website also provides a wide range of authoritative, contextual information targeted at particular interest groups. Materials for teaching are being made available at every educational level, from elementary schools to university courses. 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. It sheds light on questions of continuing scientific significance, ranging from problems in human origins to philosophical debates about the level at which natural selection acts. The current teams in the US and UK have established an efficient production process and good lines of communication so that the letters are published in a timely yet accurate and intellectually responsible fashion. Through Cambridge University they have access to the largest archive of Darwin material in the world. The process of footnoting the letters and providing other supplementary materials is designed to make the letters intelligible to a broad public. Convincing evidence of the impact of the Correspondence is found in the critical reviews of the published volumes. Their reception has been universally positive in both professional journals and those with general readership. The reviews show that the Correspondence, in addition to providing a better understanding of Darwin himself, contributes to a better understanding of the intellectual revolution of which he was a central figure.
