144 research outputs found
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Botany for Gentlemen: Erasmus Darwin and "The Loves of the Plants"
History of Scienc
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Darwin's Botanical Arithmetic and the Principle of Divergence, 1854-1858
History of Scienc
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Officers and Council Members of the British Society for the History of Science, 1947–97
As described elsewhere in this issue of BJHS, preliminary steps towards founding a society for the history of science in Britain were taken in 1946. A meeting was held at the Science Museum, London, on 22 November 1946, chaired by Herbert Dingle, at which Gavin de Beer formally proposed the foundation of a history of science society, seconded by Michael Roberts. A provisional committee was appointed to draw up rules and a constitution.History of Scienc
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Presidential Address Commemorating Darwin
This text draws attention to former ideologies of the scientific hero in order to explore the leading features of Charles Darwin's fame, both during his lifetime and beyond. Emphasis is laid on the material record of celebrity, including popular mementoes, statues and visual images. Darwin's funeral in Westminster Abbey and the main commemorations and centenary celebrations, as well as the opening of Down House as a museum in 1929, are discussed and the changing agendas behind each event outlined. It is proposed that common-place assumptions about Darwin's commitment to evidence, his impartiality and hard work contributed substantially to his rise to celebrity in the emerging domain of professional science in Britain.History of Scienc
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Charles Darwin as a Celebrity
Several recent works in sociology examine the manufacture of public identities through the notion of celebrity. This paper explores the imagery of Charles Darwin as a nineteenth-century scientific celebrity by comparing the public character deliberately manufactured by Darwin and his friends with images constructed by the public as represented here by caricatures in humorous magazines of the era. It is argued that Darwin’s outward persona drew on a subtle tension between public and private. The boundaries between public and private were blurred by the ritual of Darwin “showing” himself in the flesh, either at home to visitors or, more rarely, on public occasions. The reputation for privacy and illness that he built up added materially to this public face. By contrast, caricatures tended to depict him as an ape. These apish representations played a significant role in associating Darwin, rather than any other thinker, with the notion of evolution, and in creating an alternative public persona over which he had no direct control.History of Scienc
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Asa Gray and Charles Darwin: Corresponding Naturalists
Recent work on the rise of science in the nineteenth century has encouraged historians to look again at the role of correspondence. Naturalists relied extensively on this form of contact and correspondence was a major element in generating a community of experts who agreed on what comprised valid knowledge. As a leading figure in the development of North American botany, Asa Gray found that letters with botanists and collectors all over the world greatly expanded his areas of influence. Lasting friendships were made and the collections at Harvard were materially advanced. Letters also brought Gray into contact with Charles Darwin, who became a close friend. After publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, Gray defended Darwinism in the United States and corresponded with him about evolution. This article sets Gray's correspondence with Darwin in the context of the reception of Darwinism in the United States.History of Scienc
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Darwin in Caricature: A Study in the Popularisation and Dissemination of Evolution
History of Scienc
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