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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

A Day With Darwin — A Visit to Down House

Posted in Darwin's Garden, Exhibitions, People on July 3 2008, by Plant Talk

Jane Dorfman is Reference Librarian/Exhibitions Coordinator in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

Down House
© English Heritage Photo Library

I just returned from a short visit to the United Kingdom where a colleague from the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library arranged for a private tour of Down House, the home of Charles Darwin. He lived there with his family for the last 40 years of his life, experimenting with plants.

The tour of the house and garden was led by author and conservationist Randal Keynes, a great, great grandson of Charles Darwin. Erudite and charming, Mr. Keynes offered insights and details about the life and work of his extraordinary relative that enlivened and inspired the experience.

Come and be inspired, as well, by the work of Charles Darwin in the Mertz Library’s Rondina Gallery exhibit, Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure, which continues until July 20.