Darwin Correspondence Project (Cambridge University, Library)

If you would like to gain insight into the "evolution" of that particular, so-named, scientific tenet, as bantered about by contemporaries, among other topics of the day, then consider browsing the site of the Darwin Correspondence Project.

Since its inception in 1974, the project has documented, from libraries and private collections, a sum of 14,500 letters exchanged between Charles Darwin and 2000 correspondents—5000 letters of which have been recently digitized. Among the 5000, are letters exchanged during the voyage of the Beagle and from the years encompassing publication of Origin of Species (1859).

These letters can be searched by keyword with retrieval supplying summary and transcription, footnotes, and links to related correspondence.

The site also includes special resource subsets including exploration of Darwin and Religion and Countdown to the 2009 Cambridge bicentenary celebration of Darwin’s birth.