George Eliot was the pen name of celebrated Victorian novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). She was born on the outskirts of Nuneaton in Warwickshire and was educated at boarding schools from the age of five until she was 16. Her education ended when she was required to come home to nurse her mother and, following her mother's death, to care for her father and to run the family household. In 1841 she moved to Coventry with her father and continued to care for him until he died.
York Minster in 1832 from 'Fuegians' in The narrative of the voyages of H.M. Ships Adventure and Beagle. Vol.2. FitzRoy, R. 1839. Proceedings of the second expedition, 1831-36. 'Fuegians' [plate] pp.324-325
Elleparu was one of the Alakaluf, or canoe people from the western part of Tierra del Fuego. He was captured by Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, in 1830 after one the small boats used for surveying the narrow inlets of the coast of Tierra del Fuego had been stolen. During a relentless hunt for the lost vessel, several Fuegians were taken hostage by FitzRoy, who promised their release on the return of the boat. In the end, he kept only one hostage, a young girl called Yokcushlu.
Robert FitzRoy was captain of HMS Beagle when Darwin was aboard. From 1831 to 1836 the two men lived in the closest proximity, their relationship revealed by the letters they exchanged while Darwin left the ship to explore the countries visited during the Beagle’s voyage round the world. FitzRoy and Darwin could not have been more different, but these differences were minimised by their shared interests during the voyage. Once back in England, however, their divergent views became more apparent, especially on religious matters and evolutionary theory.
Charles Darwin’s cousin, William Darwin Fox, was admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1824, three years before Darwin; the two men became close friends. They corresponded throughout their lives, exchanging accounts of their growing families interspersed with discussions of Darwin's work. Fox was often asked for, and provided, information from his own observations of the natural world.
Francis Galton from the frontispiece of Pearson, Karl. 1914-30. The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. On inheriting a large fortune from his father, he abandoned medicine, which he disliked, indulged in travel and sport, and then financed his own expedition to southwest Africa (1850-52), completing a natural historical narrative of the journey (Galton 1853).
Women have interpreted and applied evolutionary theory in arguments about women’s nature for over a century. Eliza Burt Gamble (1841-1920) was a pioneer in this endeavor. Gamble was an advocate of the Woman Movement, a mother, a writer, and a teacher from Michigan. Over the course of her career, Gamble wrote three books: The Evolution of Woman (1894), The God-Idea of the Ancients (1897), and The Sexes in Science and History (1916). In these works, Gamble sought to challenge male patriarchy using arguments grounded in religion, science, and history.
Darwin’s longest running and most significant exchange of correspondence dealing with the subjects of design in nature and religious belief was with the Harvard botanist Asa Gray. Gray was one of Darwin’s leading supporters in America. He was also a devout Presbyterian. The vigorous and yet civil and humble manner in which the two men debated matters of intense personal belief and social consequence serves as a model of constructive engagement. The entire extant correspondence, consisting of about 300 letters written between 1854 and 1881, is now available for the first time.
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have corresponded directly with Darwin once, sending him observations about the behaviour of her dog (letter from J. L. Gray, 14 February 1870), she also passed on information through her husband, and is one of few women cited in Darwin’s Expression of Emotions. The Grays visited Charles and Emma Darwin twice, spending several days as guests at Down House in October 1868, and visiting again in August 1869. Although they never met again, the two couples became close friends.
The letters Darwin exchanged with John Stevens Henslow, professor of Botany and Mineralogy at Cambridge University, were among the most significant of his life. It was a letter from Henslow that brought Darwin the invitation to sail round the world as companion to captain Robert FitzRoyof HMS Beagle, and during the voyage it was Henslow who received the vast numbers of specimens Darwin sent home, and sent practical advice about how best to prepare, preserve, and ship them. Despite Henslow's reservations about the evolutionary ideas put forward in Originthe two men remained friends to the end of Henslow's life.
John Maurice Herbert was a close friend of Darwin’s at Cambridge University. He was affectionately called ‘Cherbury’ by Darwin, a reference to the seventeenth-century philosopher Edward Herbert, Baron Cherbury, who, like John Herbert, hailed from Montgomeryshire in Wales. Darwin must have used this nickname so consistently that when addressing a letter to Herbert in October 1828, he had to confess ‘I cannot recollect your Christian name, so I shall Christen you G’.
