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To John Edward Gray    1 January [1840]1

12 Upper Gower Street

1st Jany

My dear Sir,

I have great pleasure in assuring you, that I have invariably received, when visiting the British Museum the greatest attention from you, and every facility in investigating the objects of Natural History deposited therein. I should think if I may be allowed to say so, that your extensive acquaintance with so many different Classes of Animals (an advantage possessed by few naturalists) would give you strong claims to hold the situation which Mr Children is about to resign—2

Believe me my dear sir | yours truly | (signed) Charles Darwin

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1
Dated by Gray’s appointment as keeper of the zoological department of the British Museum (seen. 2, below).
2
Gray was appointed keeper on 11 April 1840. His application for the post was supported by testimonials from 31 prominent naturalists. The testimonials, or copies of them, are in Gray’s papers. John George Children was keeper of the zoological department from 1822 until his resignation in 1840 (Gunther 1975).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-548C,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-548C