Darwin Letter Friday

We’ve moved!
Here’s the post you’re looking for.

Darwin Letter Friday

Man oh man, Charles had a passive aggressive girlfriend!
Charles had taken a liking to Fanny Owen through his Cambridge years, but as he departed on the Beagle voyage, well…
She dumped him.
Apparently he cared more about his beetle collection than about her. She wished she had given him a pin cushion for his instruments of death. [...]

Darwin Letter Friday

The collector bug strikes early.
At the age of twelve, in addition to being stinky, Charles Darwin reminds himself that if he is going to be a great naturalist, he’ll need a place for his stash.
That’s right, he’s building a fort.
In Summer, 1823, he says, the work must start!
January 12th, 1822–
remember next summer to make [...]

Darwin Letter Friday

This week: Stinky, stinky, 12-year-old Darwin
Charles Darwin, at the age of 12, wrote several letters into a ‘Memorandum book’ while on vacation from school. He was staying at his family home in Shrewsbury, and apparently not bathing much. Ah, the days when washing was a chore!
Please be advised that the spelling mistakes and lack of [...]

Darwin Letter Friday

You can do it, Chas!
Charles Darwin wanted what many academics still strive for: to get published!
It was difficult for other reasons, in his case. Murray, the publisher, might reject a paper that runs “slap counter to Genesis.” Look out, Christendom, here comes Darwin! He mentions this concern in a letter below.

Today is the Anniversary of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial

July 10, 1925: jury selection begins on Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan’s famous trial in Dayton, Tennessee on the teaching of evolution in schools. The story is a little more complicated that one might think. Scopes, it turns out, agreed to be arrested. And the town was seeking some publicity.
NPR’s All Things Considered ran [...]

Darwin Letter Friday

Happy Independence Day! To celebrate, below is a letter written by Darwin on July 4, 1858 to an American: botanist Asa Gray. Gray pretty much started the botany program at Harvard, and was an immense help with developing Darwin’s carefully wrought theory.
Darwin observed peculiarities in Dicentra (Bleeding Heart) flowers that he links to the cross-pollinating [...]

Darwin Letter Friday

UPDATE 7-25: Check out this week’s letter: Darwin Builds a Fort!
Charles Darwin was a typical teenager. He thought that some of his teachers were full of crap, and wasn’t afraid to say so (at least to his sister).
This letter from Charles to his sister Caroline has a few choice words for a professor Duncan, namely [...]