Dear Friends,
Today we are talking about a little-observed holiday: February 12th is International Darwin Day! According to darwinday.org: “The mission of International Darwin Day is to inspire people throughout the globe to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth as embodied in Charles Darwin.” A truly noble goal, and one that I hope we can help further here at Skidompha.
In the meantime, let’s talk a little about Darwin himself. Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809, and came from a fine tradition of radical thinkers. His grandfather Erasmus Darwin was a naturalist in his own right, and first proposed the idea of “Zoomania,” which was a forerunner of the younger Darwin’s theory of evolution. His other grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood, was an outspoken abolitionist, as well as an entrepreneur who revolutionized the production of pottery in England.
Charles Darwin originally began studying to be a doctor, briefly switched to training as a member of the clergy, before finally pursuing biology. From 1831 until 1836, Darwin joined the second expedition about the HMS Beagle as a naturalist and traveled around the world, studying the flora and fauna of four distinct continents – including the visits to South America and the Galápagos Islands which would become such a large part of his legend. (A fun aside relating to this leg of his trip: popular tradition holds that Harriet, the Galápagos tortoise who lived at the Australia Zoo run by the Irwin family, was collected by Darwin on that trip. Harriet died in 2006, a well-loved link to the past.)
Following his studies and many conversations with other biologists, Darwin began to formulate his ideas on evolution and natural selection. And he was not alone in coming to these conclusions. Alfred Russel Wallace, inspired by Darwin and similar research, came independently to the idea of evolution; and Darwin’s first publication on the topic in 1858 credits both men. A little over a year later, in 1859, Darwin published his now-famous book On the Origin of Species, and changed the world forever.
He was not, however, the main voice in the public debate that followed. Charles Darwin did not have an easy life – he and his wife suffered the loss of more than one of their children, and he himself was plagued by ill health on and off throughout his life – and the public face of this discourse was the brilliant and charismatic biologist Thomas Huxley. (His lectures on evolution are still widely taught, and I highly recommend looking them up.) In June of 1860, the British Association for the Advancement of Science hosted what became known as The Great Debate, at the opening of the Oxford University Museum (now the Museum of Natural History). Before a crowd of almost 500 people, Huxley debated against the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, representing the ideals of science and evolution versus the Biblical tale of creation. Both sides claimed victory. This argument would happen many more times – including in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” in 1925. The trial prosecuted a Tennessee school teacher named John T. Scopes for challenging the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in school, and was a staging ground for public discourse around modern education and fundamentalism.
While most of us are aware of the pure biological ideas underpinning Darwin’s writing, and their role in inspiring generations of scientists down to the modern day, I also want to take a moment to talk about the social components of Darwin’s writing. In his book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin wrote: “As man advances in civilisation, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races…. This virtue, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings.” In modern life, we often use the term “Darwinism” to refer to ruthless competition, but Darwin held compassion and empathy to be among the most remarkable virtues of life, shared by humans and animals alike.
And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg! If your interest has been piqued, we encourage you to join us here at the Library on Thursday, where local biologist and retired teacher Chuck Dinsmore will bring in his collection of books and documents about Darwin, for an informal chat with any interested patrons! And, of course, we have plenty of books in the collection available to borrow.
Beyond that, take a minute today to embrace curiosity. There are a lot of amazing things to see and learn in the world. Whether you give yourself time to observe nature, read an article, pursue an answer to a question that has been intriguing you, or follow any number of other routes to knowledge, you are doing a small part to celebrate Darwin Day. And, to truly honor Darwin, share what you’ve learned with someone else.
Stay curious, friends!
Meghan
Meghan Hawkes
Skidompha Public Library