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National Museum of Australia, Canberra. 10 December 2008 – 29 March 2009 To commemorate Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, among a plethora of commemorations, the National Museum of Australia at Canberra has provided an historical and biographical presentation of his life. The display sequences his life and work, interpolated with examples of easy-to-follow interactive and static illustrations of natural selection. The exhibition begins with a comparative display of various animal and reptile skeletons which give a general idea of the similarity of elemental components such as rib, arm and leg structures and how these have been modified within and over species. It then moves to the ancestry of 'natural selection'—inspired by his grandfather, a man of many parts, and Carolus Linnaeus among others. Both described how organisms evolved more by intuition than evidence. It was Charles Darwin who gave substance to these speculations through almost fifty years of observation and contemplation until on 8 July 1858 he published The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. From here on the display is divided into biographical details and his journey on the HMS Beagle which provided most of the evidence to justify his later theory of natural selection. His biographical details reveal a grandfather who, as an amateur theoretical scientist, considerably influenced Charles; a father who was almost the antithesis of the grandfather, being very straight laced and strict and who married very respectably into the Wedgwood (pottery) family. He, through his authorative nature, outlined a life for Charles in the fields of medicine and the Church. But Charles Darwin showed little interest in either of these fields being fascinated by natural history. He attended several schools with little effect and only after his father dispatched him to Cambridge to study medicine did he show interest—not in medicine but in the comprehensive natural history discipline. After graduating with an Arts degree from Cambridge he married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and they had a large family. On 29 August 1831, after a geology trek in Wales, Darwin found a letter awaiting him from Reverend John Henslow, Professor of Natural History at Cambridge and a mentor inviting him to join a two-year voyage to South America on the HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitzroy. Initially Darwin's father reacted unfavourably to the news. But his objection was not absolute as it contained the caveat that if Darwin could find a reputable person to support the voyage he would withdraw his objections. Darwin's white knight turned out to be his father's brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II, who strongly supported Charles' wishes. After many delays, on 27 December 1831 H.M.S. Beagle, with a crew of seventy-three men, set sail on a voyage that turned out to last almost five years and that included a circumnavigation of the world. Examples of salient points along the voyage were visits to the Chilean Andes where he saw petrified trees of the same species as on the coastal plain; the Galapagos Islands (as a result of which his theory of natural selection began to originate), Sydney, Hobart and St. George's Sound in Australia. He looked forward to visiting Sydney as it was considered a sophisticated town; he was agreeably surprised at Hobart's cultivated society, whilst his ten day visit to St. George's Sound in Western Australia was a great disappointment as there were 'no mountains and little more than a whaling station.' Darwin arrived home from the voyage on the Beagle on 2 October 1836. By this time he and most of the crew were dreadfully homesick. The time on the voyage between Sydney and Plymouth was spent yearning for home. But, on arriving home, with the innumerable crates of specimens at his disposal and an inkling of a theory especially after visiting the Galapagos Islands he plunged into the work which resulted some time later in the Origin of Species. After coming to his conclusion about natural selection, Darwin paused for many years because of its perceived impact on Christianity. It was not until Alfred Russell Wallace, a biologist working on the Malay Peninsula, sent back to England an essay entitled, 'On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species,' that Charles decided to act. This essay, because of its similarities to Darwin's theory caused him to begin writing his own essay which soon became the Origins. It sold for fifteen shillings and almost all of the 1250 copies printed were sold in the first day. The concluding part of the exhibition emphasises just how important the theory of evolution has been to science: it underpins the discipline of biology and studies of DNA. Among the examples of natural selection is a movie showing the evolution of bacteria during reproduction (division). This reminded me of a comment by Peter Docherty, that he could not understand those who pushed Creationism and Significant design when he watched hundreds of examples of evolution through the microscope every day. Notes and photographs were included about various court cases challenging Darwin's theory; significantly, all in the United States. For a person whose knowledge of Charles Darwin and his life until now had been restricted to a reading of The Origin of Species this display was full of the history and biographical details of the man and his work. There was a natural flow in the displays which were clear, and easy to read. After spending about two hours fossicking through the presentation, the gold I found was an aroused curiosity about the man and his work. As a result I am about to begin by reading Darwin's Descent of Man. The display is open at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra until 29th March 2009.
Ian J. Henderson
20 February 2009 
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