Darwin and Collections

By Jonathan Armbruster

NewSouth Books
Publication date: March 2013

ISBN: 9781603062855

Digital Book format: ePub (Adobe DRM)

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In this volume, excerpted from Charles Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy (NewSouth Books, 2013), Jon Armbruster writes about the grand age of Natural History (late 1700s to about 1900), how it helped shape Darwin as a biologist, and how Darwin in turn influenced the character of the age. From this essay we learn what for some will be shocking news - that magpies were more important than the famous finches of the Galapagos Islands for Darwin's development of the concept of natural selection. Armbruster brings us up to date about the state of natural history collections worldwide and in Alabama, their value, and a recent use made of some of Darwin's specimens that the collector could never have anticipated.