The 12 February 2009 marked the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and we found out some lesser-known facts on the famous naturalist…
Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England on 12 February 1809 and went on to become one of the most important figures in our history, by forming the basis of the evolutionary theory and changing forever the face of science.
His two most famous works, On the Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle, revolutionised the thinking of Victorian, orthodox England, and indeed, the rest of the world.
Darwin exploded the established creationist beliefs, demonstrating through years of experiments and discoveries the evolution and natural selection of living beings.
However, who was the man behind the marvel? I went to a special Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London to find out more…
Did you know…
• The young Charles Darwin very nearly didn’t get to go on the monumental Beagle voyage. His father was keen for his son to become a clergyman and had a list of reasons why the 22-year-old Charles shouldn’t go. However, Charles’ uncle managed to persuade his father otherwise.
• The Beagle’s first stop was the Cape Verde Islands, and it was here that Darwin first decided to write about geology – he was so amazed by the wide variety of species he saw. But he was also feeling insecure at his youth and inexperience – he wrote, “one great source of perplexity to me is an utter ignorance whether I note the right facts, and whether they are of sufficient importance to interest others.”
• Darwin was a great companion to the Beagle’s Captain FitzRoy. They were close in age – FitzRoy being 26 years old when the Beagle set sail. However, they disagreed fervently on one hot topic – slavery, which Darwin witnessed on their stops in Brazil.
• During his time at university, Darwin had formed a club for eating animals “unknown to the human palate” and so upon arrival in the Galapagos, he enjoyed devouring the iguanas and even the armadillos.
• While he was on the Galapagos Islands, the playful Darwin used to climb onto the backs of the giant tortoises for rides.
• Darwin suffered miserably from seasickness during his five-year voyage with the Beagle, and famously wrote home, “I loathe, I abhor the sea, and all ships which sail on it.”
• Darwin was such a keen beetle collector that once, when he spotted a new specimen on a tree bark, but already had a beetle in each hand, he popped one in his mouth to free up a hand. However, the one he put in his mouth released an acrid fluid in defence and so Darwin was forced to spit out and lose his specimen.
• Despite common thought that Darwin was preoccupied with the animal kingdom, his notebooks tell a different story – there are 368 pages of notes made on animals, but 1,383 pages are dedicated to geology, revealing Darwin’s true passion.
• He was so fearful of revealing his discoveries to begin with, for a time he kept his manuscripts hidden in the hall cupboard in his home, Down House. He only gained the courage to publish his works when a young scholar sent him a draft of similar findings. That scholar was Alfred Russel Wallace – later to become a respected naturalist in his own right.
• Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and she was a devout Christian. They had a happy and successful marriage and yielded 10 children.
Darwin died on 19 April 1882 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
You can visit Darwin’s home – Down House in Downe, Kent – and see the study where he carried out much of his world-shattering work. See the beautiful illustrated version of The Voyage of the Beagle.