Researchers and historians have collected approximately 15,000 letters written both to and by Charles Darwin in an effort to better understand his life and science. One of his most frequent contacts was Joseph Dalton Hooker, a botanist who helped identify many of the plant specimens collected during Darwin’s HMS Beagle journey, including his famed stop at the Galapagos Islands. Their discourse, which spanned more than 1,400 letters over 4 decades—including the one pictured here, dated January 11, 1844—was one of the first places Darwin expressed his theory of natural selection as a driver of speciation and evolution.
1. …ever since my return…
After five years traveling the southern hemisphere on the HMS Beagle, Darwin returned to England, where he set out to classify the fossils and samples of flora and fauna he collected on his journey.
2. …heaps of agricultural & horticultural books… Darwin first postulated his theory of natural ...
