[The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On The Origin of Species.” The University of Cincinnati is marking these anniversaries with a year-long celebration of Darwin’s life and work. This series on the life of Charles Darwin is part of the celebration.]
On October 2, 1836, after almost five years of voyaging on the survey ship H.M.S. Beagle, Charles Darwin returned to England with boxes full of specimens and a journal full of stories. He spent the first month reacquainting himself with family and friends in Shrewsbury, Maer, and Cambridge. By early December he had taken up residence in London. Although now an accomplished geologist and experienced naturalist, Darwin knew he was not expert enough to satisfactorily catalogue and describe the thousands of samples, specimens and fossils he had collected on the Beagle. Instead he farmed them out to specialists he knew were far more qualified to assess their significance and value. The reptiles specimens were sent to Thomas Bell of King’s College (London), the fossil mammals were delivered to Richard Owen, the birds went to John Gould, and the plants were entrusted to his old Cambridge Mentor John Stevens Henslow.While his specimens were under study, Darwin began moving more frequently in the local scientific circles, culminating in memberships in the Geological Society and the Zoological Society. As his sphere of colleagues expanded, so too did Darwin’s exposure to the latest ideas and discoveries in natural history. In June 1837, Darwin completed a narrative of the Beagle voyage and had turned his attention to the possibility of “transmutation,” the proposition that a species could change over time. Using a series of small, pocket-sized notebooks, Darwin began recording his observations and musings on the origin of species. By October 1838, he had filled three successive notebooks and was convinced that transmutation, what he would ultimately call “descent with modification,” was a biological reality. He was also convinced that the mechanism of transmutation was explainable in the continuous competition between variable individuals for scarce resources.
As Darwin’s professional life flourished, his social life began to narrow. As he pondered transmutation, he also pondered marriage. Charles had been seeing much of his cousin Emma Wedgwood; first during short visits to the Wedgwood estate at Maer and later in London when Emma spent several weeks visiting her married sister. On January 24, 1839, Darwin was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Five days later, on January 29, Emma and Charles were married. They moved into a terraced house in Upper Gower Street, London, which they dubbed “Macaw House,” in honor of its garish blue and yellow décor.
Through 1839, 1840, and 1841, Darwin worked to piece together a convincing argument for the transmutability of species and for natural selection as its primary mechanism. But the work was slow going. Frequent, severe illness forced Darwin to bed for days at a time. He became increasingly dependent on Emma for care, and two young children had joined the household. The Darwin’s first child, William Erasmus was born on December 27, 1839. Daughter Anne Elizabeth followed on March 2, 1841. Darwin continued development of his “Species Theory,” folding in fossil evidence, principles of agricultural breeding, and species distribution. It wasn’t until June 1842, however, that he put his ideas into a formal paper. A 35-page “Sketch” outlined his vision of the relation of species through common descent and the workings of natural selection. By this time, however, Emma was pregnant again, and London had lost its appeal.
[There are several outstanding biographies of Charles Darwin readily available to the public. The definitive biography is a two volume work by E. Janet Browne titled “Charles Darwin: Voyaging” and “Charles Darwin: The Power of Place.” “Darwin: the Life of a Tormented Evolutionist,” by Adrian Desmond and James Moore is also highly regarded. For a shorter biography of Darwin try “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin,” by David Quammen.]