In June 1792, Erasmus Darwin published the complete version of The Botanic Garden, a popular scientific nature poem. The poem anticipates ecocritical discussions of human environmental agency in its proposal that Europeans combat climate change through geoengineering. Image: Frontispiece to Erasmus Darwin's The Botanic Garden, designed by Henry Fuseli. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

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Siobhan Carroll, “On Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden, 1791-1792″

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by David Rettenmaier

January 1830 saw the publication of the first volume (of three) of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (January 1830). Image: G. J. Stodart (engraver), Portrait of Charles Lyell (unknown date).

Lyell’s work, though contested, establishes the preeminence of Uniformitarian principles in the interpretation of Geological phenomena, and allows vast temporal scope for Charles Darwin’s subsequent model of evolutionary development.

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Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

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Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

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by David Rettenmaier

From October 1831 to October 1836, Charles Darwin circumnavigated the world as ship’s naturalist on board the H.M.S. Beagle; he later published his first book based on the journal of his experiences and observations during the voyage. Image: Henry Maull and John Fox, Photograph of Charles Darwin (c. 1854). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

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Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

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by David Rettenmaier

Written by Edinburgh publisher Robert Chambers but published anonymously in October 1844, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation provided a grand cosmic narrative of evolutionary change and became an immediate sensation. Its condemnation by leaders of both science and the church contributed to Charles Darwin’s delay in publishing his own evolutionary theory but also helped spread acceptance of what was then called “the transmutation of species” and “the development hypothesis.” Image: Robert Chambers, c. 1863. Reproduced from John van Wyhe, The History of Phrenology on the Web. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Jonathan Smith, “The Huxley-Wilberforce ‘Debate’ on Evolution, 30 June 1860″

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Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

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by David Rettenmaier

On 24 November 1859, Charles Darwin publishes his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Image: Henry Maull and John Fox, Photograph of Charles Darwin (c. 1854). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

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Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

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by David Rettenmaier

The publication in March 1860 of the seven articles by liberal Anglicans comprising Essays and Reviews set off a firestorm of controversy within the Church of England and across British society. The “seven against Christ,” as they were called by their critics, embraced a Christianity in step with the new historical scholarship of the Bible and with modern science.

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Jonathan Smith, “The Huxley-Wilberforce ‘Debate’ on Evolution, 30 June 1860″

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Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

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by David Rettenmaier

At the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford on 30 June 1860, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was informally debated by a number of speakers, most memorably in an exchange between Darwin’s friend and supporter T. H. Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford. Image: Thomas Henry Huxley as photographed by Ernest Edwards for Photographs of Eminent Medical Men, ed. William Tindal Robertson, vol. 2 (London: Churchill, 1868), between 4 and 5. Images from the History of Medicine, National Library of Medicine. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Jonathan Smith, “The Huxley-Wilberforce ‘Debate’ on Evolution, 30 June 1860″

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Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

Associated Places

by David Rettenmaier

On 24 February 1871, Charles Darwin published his argument for the gradualist evolution of the human species from animal species in two volumes: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Image: Charles Darwin, photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron (1868). Reprinted in Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters, edited by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1892. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

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Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

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by David Rettenmaier

On 11 April 1876, W. K. Clifford delivered his paper “The Ethics of Belief” to the monthly meeting of the Metaphysical Society in London. Image: Picture of William Kingdon Clifford, 1901. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

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Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

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Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Bernard Lightman, “On Tyndall’s Belfast Address, 1874″

Martin Meisel, “On the Age of the Universe”

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

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by David Rettenmaier

On 10 October 1881, Charles Darwin published his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits, based on extensive study of the behavior of worms and the effects that they have on the earth’s surface. Worms begins with the individual physiology and behavior of worms before moving to the cumulative effects of their work on the exterior world. Two long chapters on their senses and habits are followed by four chapters cataloguing the results of their labor, including bringing up earth, burying buildings, enriching the soil, and denuding the land. Image: “Man is But a Worm,” Punch, 6 December 1881. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

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Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

Associated Places

by David Rettenmaier

Death of Charles Darwin on 19 April 1882. Darwin’s friends and supporters arrange for his burial in Westminster Abbey as a mark of the importance and respectability of his life and ideas. Image: Henry Maull and John Fox, Photograph of Charles Darwin (c. 1854). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

Jonathan Smith, “The Huxley-Wilberforce ‘Debate’ on Evolution, 30 June 1860″

Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″

Associated Places

by David Rettenmaier