Letters to Henslow
[Extracts from letters addressed to Professor Henslow by C. Darwin, Esq. Read at a meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society on the 16th of November 1835. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1835.]
John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861), a botany professor at Cambridge University who is credited with introducing Darwin to a circle of naturalists, guided him toward the study of geology. Published here in a limited edition are ten letters Darwin wrote Henslow on board the Beagle.
Henslow had initially been invited to accompany Captain Robert FitzRoy of the H.M.S. Beagle on a two-year trip to survey South America, but declined the offer. He then proposed that Charles Darwin travel in his stead, recommending him highly. Darwin eventually managed to persuade his father that he should be allowed to go on the voyage, and, a few short months later, he set sail for South America - the first leg of what turned out to be a nearly five-year circumnavigation of the world.
Gift of Robert B. Honeyman, 1920