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Growing up
Charles Darwin grew up in Shrewsbury, Shropshire with his 3 older sisters and his brother. His mother died when he was 8. He attended the Anglican Shrewsbury School, where he studied between 1818 and 1825 where studying science and his dabbling in chemistry was frowned upon. He did not like school and called it "narrow and classical". -
Birth of Charles Darwin
The English naturalist, biologist, and geologist, Charles Robert Darwin is born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England to parents Dr. Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. -
Attended Edinburgh University
His father sent him to study medicine at Edinburgh University to follow in his footsteps. This is where he meets his most influential mentor Robert Edmond Grant, a radical evolutionist. At Edinburgh the more radical students showed him the latest continental sciences. At Edinburgh he was exposed to more free thinkers like himself. He learned a lot but not about medicine. -
Attended Christ College in Cambridge
While at Edinburgh University, Darwin learned a lot but did not care for his actual medical studies so his father, realizing that the church was a better calling for an aimless naturalist, switched him to Christ’s College, Cambridge which was a complete change of environment. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1831 -
Voyage Around the World
Darwin sets sail on a survey mission that circumnavigated the world from 1831-1836. He spent 5 years aboard the HMS Beagle. While traveling, he experienced many different ecosystems and terrains. He collected fossils and specimens while comparing and documenting in his 770-page diary the differences within each species. He noticed that the mockingbirds he saw in the Galapagos islands, differed on each island. It raised many questions that led to his theory. -
His Theory
"Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had three main components: that variation occurred randomly among members of a species; that an individual’s traits could be inherited by its progeny; and that the struggle for existence would allow only those with favorable traits to survive." -
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First Publications
Once Charles Darwin came back from his voyage, he had many unanswered questions. Now a fellow of the Geological Society in January 1837. Darwin became well known through his diary’s publication as "Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle" and through his other publication "Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle". At this point in time, he is beginning to become a well-known author. -
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Natural Selection & Theory of Evolution I
Darwin began going over his findings from his journey trying to find answers to his questions. He spoke with breeders and how they would spot slight variations and accentuating them through breeding as well as studying orangutangs at the zoo. In a time were belief in god was everything and his ideas challenged that, he became an outcast and spent most of his time alone in his studies. -
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Natural Selection & Theory of Evolution II
"Darwin realized that population explosions would lead to a struggle for resources and that the ensuing competition would weed out the unfit. Darwin called his modified Malthusian mechanism “natural selection.” This would lead to the passing along of the winning traits of the survivors to the future offspring. In 1839 his theory largely complete. He was hesitant on publishing his findings due to the possibility of Christian outrage but was rushed by competing theorists with the same ideas. -
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin goes public with his studies in his book "On the Origin of Species" which deeply influenced modern Western society and thought. -
His Death
After years of suffering from what sounds like life in hiding and the harsh effects of stress on the body from fear and anxiety of public outrage from his offensive studies that he felt so passionately about, Charles Darwin passed away on April 19th 1882. His funeral was one of honor in Westminster Abbey attended by the new nobility of science and the state.
Video Link:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0B6os-6uuc]
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin/The-Beagle-voyage
