His Life with Plants
In the William D. Rondina and Giovanni Foroni LoFaro Gallery of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library
Through July 20, 2008
The cornerstone of the Garden-wide show is an exhibition of Charles Darwin's original manuscripts, field notebooks, plant collections, and other historical documents chronicling Darwin's progression from a boy with an interest in plants to an evolutionary botanist who revolutionized the world's view of life.
The exhibition's more than 60 rare books and objects, starting with a portrait of him as a young boy holding a plant, tell the story of Darwin's life-long relationship with plants. A facsimile of a herbarium specimen he collected as a student represents, in part, his early influences and his studies at Cambridge University. Sketches of flowers and journal entries such as his exuberant reaction upon first encountering a tropical forest bring to life his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle to the Galápagos and other lands,as his theories of natural selection and evolution began taking shape.
Darwin's rough drawing of a tree of life under the words "I think" shows his visualization of the interconnection of species, which led to the writing of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species. His Experiment Book contains the data he collected in many of his botanical experiments. It highlights Darwin's exhaustive plant observations and investigations in his later years on plant sexuality (the role of flowers, including pollination and co-evolution of plants and their pollinators) and sensitivity (how plants respond to touch, light, gravity, and chemical substances).
The exhibition also documents Darwin's friendships and intellectual exchanges with leading botanists of the era, including Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Asa Gray at Harvard University.
Most of the items in the gallery are from the extensive Darwiniana collection of the Mertz Library. Others are on loan from the Cambridge Herbarium, the Cambridge University Library, the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University, and the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Darwinia Display in the Rare Book and Folio Room
LuEsther T. Mertz Library
Through July 20, 2008
Additional items from the Mertz Library’s Cox Collection will be showcased in the Rare Book Room, including a rare statue of Darwin, unpublished illustrations, family genealogy, and a bit about the writings of Erasmus Darwin, Charles’ illustrious grandfather. The Cox Collection began with the collection of Charles Finney Cox (1846–1912), one of the original members of the Botanical Garden’s Board of Managers, who served as Treasurer of the Board from 1899 until his death. Cox was greatly interested in the life and work of Charles Darwin and formed one of the most complete private collections of Darwiniana. In 1912, a permanent memorial to Cox was established to purchase for the Library his substantial collection of books, pamphlets, and letters relating to Darwin.
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