-
Who is Charles Darwin?
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury Shropshire, England. Darwin was the second son of society doctor Robert Waring Darwin and of Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of the Unitarian pottery industrialist Josiah Wedgwood. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Period: to
Anglican Shrewsbury School
Charles Darwin studied here from 1818-1825.
Science was then considered dehumanizing in English public schools, and for dabbling in chemistry Darwin was condemned by his headmaster (and nicknamed “Gas” by his schoolmates). (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Edinburgh University
His father, considering the 16-year-old a wastrel interested only in game shooting, sent him to study medicine at Edinburgh University in 1825. Later in life, Darwin gave the impression that he had learned little during his two years at Edinburgh. In fact, it was a formative experience. There was no better science education in a British university. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Period: to
Christ’s College
The young Darwin learned much in Edinburgh’s rich intellectual environment, but not medicine: he loathed anatomy, and (pre-chloroform) surgery sickened him. His freethinking father, shrewdly realizing that the church was a better calling for an aimless naturalist, switched him to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1828. Darwin was able to graduate from Cambridge at 10th place in the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1831. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
The beagle
The Beagle sailed from England on December 27, 1831.
The 18 month long voyage would be what makes Charles Darwin stand out from other philosophers. While aboard the ship, Darwin faced hardship throughout his journey. One of these hardships being sea sickness. -
Galapagos Islands
First Darwin landed on the “frying hot” Galapagos Islands. Those were volcanic prison islands, crawling with marine iguanas and giant tortoises. (Darwin and the crew brought small tortoises aboard as pets, to join their coatis from Peru.) Contrary to legend, those islands never provided Darwin’s “eureka” moment. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
When Darwin began to get sick
Heart palpitations and stomach problems were affecting him by September 1837. Stress sent him to the Highlands of Scotland in 1838, where he diverted himself studying the “parallel roads” of Glen Roy, so like the raised beaches in Chile. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Charles Darwin married his cousin
Darwin was a born list maker. In 1838 he even totted up the pros and cons of taking a wife—and married his cousin Emma Wedgwood (1808–96) in 1839. He rashly confided his thoughts on evolution, evidently shocking her. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Charles Darwins request for his wife
In 1842, Charles Darwin began to write a Journal on natural selection, he then expanded the journal in 1844. He wrote Emma a letter in 1844 requesting that, if he died, she should pay an editor £400 to publish the work. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Death of Darwins first daughter
Darwin had himself lost the last shreds of his belief in Christianity with the tragic death of his oldest daughter, Annie, from typhoid in 1851. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin -
Darwins first book on natural selection
in April 1859, Darwin began writing a triple-volume book, tentatively called Natural Selection, which was designed to crush the opposition with a welter of facts. (Desmond, 2022).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin