In recent years the study of nineteenth-century science has been transformed by the online publication of documents relating to Darwin’s life and work. The Darwin Correspondence Project is a magnificent scholarly resource that makes available in print and online the entire extant correspondence (more than 15,000 items), and much else besides. As well as opening up Darwin’s life and work in a way never previously possible, it illuminates significant social and intellectual transformations of the Victorian period. Many of the quotations given here are drawn from letters in this online database, and I offer unreserved thanks to the Project and my warmest appreciation of the scholarship that has gone into this exceptional collection. Permission to publish has graciously been granted by the Syndics of Cambridge University Press and Mr. William Darwin. I particularly thank James A. Secord, Alison Pearn, and the remarkable editorial team of the Project for their friendship over so many years. Other quotations from letters are drawn from published texts that are listed in the sources.
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online is another marvelous scholarly resource that makes available multiple editions of every work that Darwin wrote and most of the books he consulted, as well as a wide variety of commentaries and publications about evolutionary theory. This material is essential for understanding Darwin’s worldwide impact and the extensive research on which he based his views. I warmly acknowledge the director John van Wyhe in this huge enterprise and record my use of this outstanding website with gratitude and respect. Extracts from Darwin’s publications are reproduced with permission from The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, John van Wyhe, editor. The two databases together are the most exciting things to happen to the field for many a year.
I wish also to offer my thanks to Katie Ericksen Baca, a former editorial assistant on the Darwin Correspondence Project, now at Harvard University, Department of the History of Science, and a great help to me during the compilation of this volume; and also to Katelyn Smith during the final stages of this book’s preparation. I am lucky to have been able to use the resources of the Harvard Library system, Cambridge University Library, and the Wellcome Library, London, for many years. Images are drawn with grateful thanks from the Wellcome Images collection, from English Heritage, the National Portrait Gallery, and University College London. Lastly, I am exceedingly indebted to my editors at Princeton University Press, Alison Kalett and Lauren Bucca, and my friends, students, and colleagues in the History of Science department, Harvard University.