Charles Darwin
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Photos Section
Erasmus Darwin, Charles’s grandfather, was the pioneer of British evolutionary theory. Charles always played down this fact. Alamy: portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby/Active Museum.
Darwin’s father, Dr Robert Waring Darwin, was both a medical practitioner in Shrewsbury and a private banker of prodigious wealth. Courtesy of Shropshire Council, Shropshire Museums: portrait by W. W. Ouless, c.1830.
Darwin’s mother, Susannah Wedgwood, is the young woman on the pony, in this portrait by George Stubbs. The famous potter, Josiah, Charles’s other grandfather, sits to the extreme right of the picture. Photo © Wedgwood Museum/WWRD: family portrait by George Stubbs, 1780.
It was at Edinburgh University in 1825 that Darwin first heard evolutionary theories expounded from an academic podium. This class-card gained him admittance to lectures in chemistry and pharmacy. Edinburgh University Library, Scotland: Bridgeman Images.
Robert Grant, who taught Darwin medicine and biology, was the first to open his mind to the evolutionary theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Natural History Museum/photos Mary Evans Picture Library.
Robert Jameson’s Edinburgh lectures on the origin of species, like Grant’s exposition of evolution, were conveniently airbrushed from Darwin’s memory when he tried to assert his own personal originality. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
William Darwin Fox became what his cousin Charles was meant to become – a country parson. The two shared a passion for insects. Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.
Darwin told Fox that his ‘ardour’ for ‘insectology’ had redoubled as their friendship developed. Getty Images: photo DeAgostini. In this letter to Fox of 1828 (below), Darwin comments on the illustration by his sister: ‘the insect is more beautiful than the drawing’. Reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge.
John Stevens Henslow, Professor in turns of Mineralogy and of Botany at Cambridge, was one of Darwin’s father-substitutes. He secured Darwin his place as the naturalist aboard HMS Beagle. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Adam Sedgwick, Professor of Geology at Cambridge, took the young Darwin under his wing and urged him to read Charles Lyell. Sedgwick was bitterly shocked by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Lyell’s oft-revised Principles of Geology demonstrated that the creation was not a finished thing, and that the processes which led to the earth’s formation were still at work – as in the eruptions of Mount Etna in Sicily. Alamy: Natural History Museum.
Founder of the Natural History Museum and anatomist of genius, Richard Owen gave a ground-breaking paper on the evolution of the limb in 1849, a full ten years before Darwin’s Origin of Species. Darwin and Huxley regarded Owen as a bitter enemy. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Thomas Huxley, initially sceptical about Darwin’s ideas, became his most vociferous champion. He relished the fisticuffs of public controversy as much as Darwin shrank from them. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Joseph Dalton Hooker, the director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew for many years, was one of Darwin’s most loyal and affectionate champions. Mary Evans Picture Library: Universal History Archive.
When a ship crossed the line of the Equator, the hierarchies in a Royal Navy vessel were inverted. A sailor dressed as Neptune ‘baptized’ those, such as Darwin, who had not crossed the line before; that is, they were dipped in the ocean, smeared with tar and ritually humiliated. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Some of the shells sent back from his Beagle voyage by Darwin, the avid collector and classifier. Natural History Museum/photos Mary Evans Picture Library.
‘The Gaucho is invariably most obliging’, Darwin told his journal.
Weeks spent in the country outside Montevideo were among the happiest times of his South American travels. Galloping after ostriches on horseback was one of the more amusing activities in Argentina. Darwin noted that their meat ‘would never be recognized as a bird but as beef’. Getty Images: Universal History Archive.
The Zoological Society of London named this creature Rhea darwinii, even though it had already been classified by French naturalist Alcide d’Orbigny. Reproduced with permission from John van Whye, ed. 2002– The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online (http://darwin-online.org.uk/).
The famous finches of the Galápagos. These are warbler finches. It was John Gould, ornithologist in London, and not Darwin, who first spotted the phenomenon of the finches’ beaks adapting to different environmental conditions from island to island. Reproduced with permission from John van Whye, ed. 2002– The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online (http://darwin-online.org.uk/).
Modest, unassuming Alfred Russel Wallace who, simultaneously with Darwin, formed the theory of evolution by natural selection. Getty Images: photo Michael Nicholson/Corbis.
It was in the Malay Archipelago that Wallace made his momentous speculations. Our cousin the orang-outang looks out at us from Wallace’s title page. Natural History Museum/photos Mary Evans Picture Library.
Some of Wallace’s collection of butterflies, which he deposited in Owen’s Natural History Museum. Alamy: Natural History Museum.
Marriage to a cousin was almost inevitable for Darwin. He chose wisely in the patient, loving figure of Emma Wedgwood, the mother of his nine children, his nurse and his kindest friend. Alamy: Granger Historical Picture Archive.
Family was all to Darwin and he was a loving father, here depicted with his first-born, William. Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.
Annie Darwin, eldest of his three daughters and the love of his life, died of tuberculosis in 1851, aged ten. Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.
The study at Down House. Note the curtained privy to the left of the fireplace, to which Darwin was often driven by ‘stomachic catastrophe’. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Light streams through the study window. Notice his geological hammer, and the microscope through which his searching gaze penetrated the mystery of the barnacle. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
The Sandwalk at Down, scene of many a Hamlet-like pacing, as he wrestled with his theories and their implications. Reproduced with permission from John van Whye, ed. 2002– The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online (http://darwin-online.org.uk/).
A sucker for the chicaneries of Dr Gully, undergoing the water-cure, as Darwin did, at Malvern Spa. Getty Images: photo Michael Nicholson/Corbis.
Darwin’s health-obsession was an acquired characteristic inherited by his daughter Henrietta, here seen with a device attached to her nose with the purpose of keeping cold germs at bay. Drawing by her niece Gwen Raverat. Gwen Raverat, Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood, Faber & Faber, 1952, illustration of 'Aunt Etty ordering dinner in her patient anti-cold mask', p. 123. © Estate of Gwen Raverat. All rights reserved, DACS. 2017.
Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford. His measured review of The Origin of Species raised questions which Darwin did not fully answer; his clumsy joke at Huxley’s expense, however, was never forgiven and he goes down in history as ‘Soapy Sam’. Mary Evans Picture Library.
The Captain of HMS Beagle, in later life, now Admiral Robert FitzRoy, a distinguished meteorologist whose tormented life ended in suicide. Getty Images: photo Michael Nicholson/Corbis.
St George Mivart was an early convert to Darwin’s theories, but further thought led him to question them. Darwin incorporated many of Mivart’s objections into the sixth edition of The Origin, thereby leaving the theory threadbare. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
Samuel Butler’s mischief-making back-to-Lamarck reflections were regarded by Darwin as impertinent and disloyal, particularly from a friend with many family connections. Bridgeman I
mages: Bibliothèque Nationale Paris.
Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton developed the ideas of The Descent of Man into a full-blown programme of eugenics with the aim of eliminating the weak and undesirable. Karl Pearson, The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton, vol. 1, 1914.
Herbert Spencer, who coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’, supplied Darwin with many of his less plausible ideas, including the ‘evolution’ of human language. Getty Images: photo Michael Nicholson/Corbis.
Edward Blyth, a poor pharmacist from Tooting, was unguarded enough to expound his theory of evolution by natural selection in magazine articles in 1837. Darwin stole these ideas, and covered the evidence of his plagiarism by slicing the relevant pages from his notebooks. Alamy: Natural History Museum.
Among the innumerable cartoons which Darwin inspired, this one, in which a tailor measures a client for a new coat, is among the more charming. Wellcome Library, London: Punch, 28 December 1861.
This cartoon shows the evolution of the canine household pet, the dog, into a useful household servant, the butler. Wellcome Library, London: Charles Henry Bennett 1863.
Darwin devoted a decade of his life to the study of the barnacle. His monograph on the theme shows him to be a first-class naturalist. Natural History Museum/photos Mary Evans Picture Library.
One of Darwin’s most attractive books is On the Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals which repeatedly reveals his love of dogs. This illustration shows a dog caressing his master. Getty Images: Universal Images Group.
Darwin’s friendship with fellow pigeon-fanciers brought him some of his happiest social pleasures. He always forgot to acknowledge that his cultivation of the birds, such as this fine English Fantail, was in imitation of his parents at The Mount, Shrewsbury. Wellcome Library, London: Alexander von Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres, vol. 2, plate 25, 1810–1813.
Darwin’s fervent ambition was to be regarded as the English Alexander von Humboldt, the German traveller-scientist and universal genius, shown with his party at the foot of Mount Chimborazo, Ecuador. Wellcome Library, London: Alexander von Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres, vol. 2, plate 25, 1810–1813.
One of Darwin’s most ardent disciples was the German Ernst Haeckel, who believed not only in human ‘cousinage’ with gorillas, but also the hierarchy of human beings from mere savages at the bottom to the Aryan race at the peak. Getty Images: photo Michael Nicholson/Corbis.
Acknowledgements
MY FIRST DEBT is to those who have worked, over so many years, on the magnificent Darwin Correspondence Project, based in the Cambridge University Library. The fruits of their labours, in multitudinous printed volumes, and online, make researching the life of Charles Darwin possible for all of us. Especial thanks, in my own case, are due to Professor James Secord; to Dr Alison Pearn, who has helped with many inquiries, with Sam Evans who also provided material. Many thanks to Dr Marina Franca-Spada for useful suggestions, and to Professor Jonathan Haslam and Dr Karina Urbach for being kind enablers. Dr James Le Fanu read the typescript in more than one version, with great patience. John Hands also read it, and made innumerable helpful suggestions and corrections. Charles Colville read the draft typescript too, and offered encouragement. Any remaining howlers are my fault alone. As usual, it would not have been possible to write without the London Library and the British Library; many thanks to the staff in both places. Amy Boyle typed and retyped, and I thank her for her patience. In differing ways, I owe so much to my agents, Clare Alexander and Leah Middleton, and to my publishers, especially to Roland Philipps, Nick Davies and Caroline Westmore. Peter James has been a searchingly punctilious and patient copy-editor; and I am grateful to Douglas Matthews for compiling the index. It was while I was writing my last book about the Victorians for John Murray, over twenty years ago, that Ruth Guilding first took me to Down House on an early summer day, when the garden was in bloom. Many thanks to her for that, as for much else. I suppose it was during that afternoon that this book began its long gestation.
Notes
Abbreviations
Autobiography
Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–1882 with Original Omissions Restored, ed. by his granddaughter Nora Barlow, New York: W. W. Norton, 1969
Browne, Power
Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, London: Jonathan Cape, 2002
Browne, Voyaging
Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, London: Jonathan Cape, 1995
C
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 onwards. The first number following C. indicates the volume number, the second the page number: so C. 1. 16 is an abbreviation for The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 1, page 16
CUL
Cambridge University Library
DAR
Darwin Archive, Cambridge University Library
DNB
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885 onwards, with Supplements
Descent
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 2 vols, London: John Murray, 1871. The citation style follows that for C (Correspondence) above
Diary
Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary, ed. Richard Darwin Keynes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, paperback 2001
Expression
Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, London: John Murray, 1872
LLD
Francis Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter, 3 vols, London: John Murray, 1887. The citation style follows that for C (Correspondence) above
Notebooks
Charles Darwin’s Notebooks, 1836–1844, ed. Paul H. Barrett et al., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the British Museum (Natural History), 1987
ODNB
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew et al., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 onwards
Origin (1859)
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, London: John Murray, 1859
Origin (1872)
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th edn, London: John Murray, 1872
Voyage
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, ed. Janet Browne and Michael Neve, London: Penguin, 1989
Prelude
1. Dawkins, ‘The Descent of Edward Wilson’.
2. Guardian, 7 November 2014.
3. Quoted Le Fanu, p. 125.
4. Gould, ‘Is a New and General Theory of Evolution Emerging?’, Palaeobiology, 6 (1), 1980, p. 119.
5. Eldredge, Reinventing Darwin, p. 95.
6. Nagel, p. 7.
Chapter 1: A Symbol
1. Thomas Huxley, ‘The Darwin Memorial’ (1885), Collected Essays, vol. 2, p. 249.
2. Autobiography, pp. 104–5.
3. I owe these insights to Paul White’s Thomas Huxley: Making the ‘Man of Science’ (2003), pp. 58–62.