We have discussed in class how Charles Darwin fashioned himself as a Gentleman Naturalist and maintained a voluminous exchange of letters and specimens from his home at Down House. There are two major online projects that let us explore Darwin as a collector, especially a collector of texts. The Darwin Correspondence Project contains over 15000 letters to and from Darwin plus some additional materials and supporting resources. The letters are transcribed, a huge and necessary effort given Darwin's notoriously difficult handwriting. Darwin Online contains just about everything else: Darwin's publications, notebooks, journal, diary, the books he had with him on the Beagle, and key related works of other authors.

You may wish to explore both sites. This exercise focuses on the Correspondence Project. There are some thematic collections and background information worth browsing on the site to supplement your understanding, either before or after the exercise.

1. Pick a few key words (rabbit, fly-trap, ache,…) and search for them one at a time in the main search bar. What did Darwin have to say involving that word. How often did he mention it? To whom did he correspond, and over what period of time?

2. Go to the timeline and pick a date. Browse a series of letters in chronological order. How do they vary (in length, topic, recipient/sender, etc.)?

3. Choose a sender/recipient from either of the first two parts and click on their name in one of their letters to open up their profile page. Look at the timeline of correspondence with Darwin. Over what period of time did they correspond? On what topics? Why did this person matter to Darwin and how did Darwin matter to this person? Choose a few senders/recipients as time permits.