The Natural History Museum, London, and Charles Darwin

Abstract

London’s Natural History Museum opened its doors to the public in 1881. Today a statue of Charles Darwin has pride of place in the main hall. To the surprise of many, Darwin never set foot in the building and had no role in the planning of the “Cathedral of Nature”. We hold comparatively few of his specimens. However, Darwin’s successful theory underpins the museum’s research themes. Knowledge produced from Natural History and conclusions from that knowledge, including Natural Selection, would promote fierce intellectual conflict during the “long” 19th century, the British century. The driving force behind the creation of the Natural History Museum, Richard Owen, in the words of his biographer was “eclipsed by Darwin”. The significant Darwin specimens that the Museum does hold are from the Ornithological collections from the Voyage of the Beagle but, perhaps surprisingly, from closer to home here in the United Kingdom. We will look at those and discuss their significance. We will also examine additional research projects, including the one that led to our collaboration with Salem State. Another of Darwin’s great anticipations was the discovery of the mechanism for species change, the mutation of the DNA molecule. We are re-curating our collections to an order derived from DNA sequencing - a massive task. It’s a privilege to work with collections of such huge significance. Perhaps I can offer advice to anyone who’d like to take a career path similar to mine.