English Heritage collaborates with Natural History Museum on Darwin exhibition

From 14th November 2008 visitors to the Natural History Museum in London can enjoy an acclaimed exhibition on Darwin, in conjunction with English Heritage.

The exhibition charts the development in Darwin’s thinking from a youthful interest in the natural world to his emergence as the father of natural history. A watershed for Darwin was the acceptance of an invitation to join the crew of HMS Beagle as the ship’s naturalist, sailing to South America, the Galápagos Islands and beyond.  The diversity of life he encountered on the historic five-year voyage was a revelation.  A real live iguana and frog are exhibited as examples of Darwin’s theories in action.

A centrepiece of the exhibition is a meticulous re-creation of the study at The Home of Charles Darwin, Down House in Kent, where Darwin spent 40 years carefully observing and testing his theories on plants, pigeons and other natural life. On this bedrock of work he wrote the explosive On the Origin of Species, which turned the Victorian worldview on its head.  A sense of realism is brought to the recreation by the display of Darwin’s personal possessions from The Home of Charles Darwin, including his walking stick, the table, specimen boxes containing beetle fragments and test tubes.

The sense of place evoked in the re-created study is part of an overall emphasis on Darwin as a man, as well as his work.

The exhibition highlights Darwin’s musings on marriage prior to his union with his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and touches on his grief after the death of a beloved daughter Annie at 10 years old. A writing box full of treasured keepsakes kept by her mother and sister forms part of the display. Family photographs and letters show a different side to the famous scientist and illustrate that he was a family man, husband, and father of ten children.

Visitors to The Home of Charles Darwin will recognise Darwin’s famous ‘thinking path’, the sandwalk, which Darwin regularly trod in contemplation; visitors to the Natural History Museum can see this conveyed through a video presentation created from 1,000 high-resolution photographs.  
This unique exhibition concludes with an exploration of modern evolutionary biology, emphasising the importance of Darwin’s work in the the modern world.

The leading role of The Home of Charles Darwin in the exhibition highlights its cultural significance not only in the UK but worldwide. A new bid is due to be submitted to UNESCO in January 2009, nominating the site for World Heritage Site status, a prestigious accreditation awarded to cultural and natural sites ‘of outstanding universal value.’

If awarded, The Home of Charles Darwin and its environs will join a list of 26 World Heritage Sites in the UK, including English Heritage sites Stonehenge, the Jewel Tower (part of the Palace of Westminster) and Hadrian’s Wall.

The exhibition on Darwin in London runs from 14 November 2008 until 19 April 2009 at the Natural History Museum.