Museum Exhibition & Online Gallery
This exhibition was on view April 17, 2009 – October 17, 2010
Watch a video about the Dialogues with Darwin exhibition on the WHYY website.
Dialogues with Darwin, an exhibition drawn from the American Philosophical Society’s own Darwin collection—the largest outside of Cambridge, England—celebrates the Darwin’s 200th birthday and the sesquicentennial of the publication of his book On the Origin of Species.
On view are original letters written by Darwin, manuscripts such as his handwritten title page for On the Origin of Species, rare first editions of his work (in many languages), and sumptuously illustrated books by other scientists. The exhibition traces the history of his theory of evolution through natural selection for more than a century, beginning prior to the 1830s, before Darwin jotted down his first thoughts about evolution, and continuing into the 1940s, when his theory was accepted as the basis for all life sciences.
The notion of “dialogue” lies behind all aspects of the exhibition and associated programs. The historical materials explore Darwin’s work in relation to other scientists and thinkers: the predecessors, contemporaries, and successors who were in dialogue with his ideas up through the mid-20th century. Contemporary artworks by Eve Andrée Laramée extend the dialogue into the present. Laramee’s steampunk aesthetic merges the visual and scientific worlds of Darwin’s Victorian era with 21st-century video technology.
You can visit the exhibition in the APS Museum’s gallery space in Philadelphia. There you will be invited to use Post-It® Notes to add your comments to the Darwin dialogue. Or view it right on this website and go to Diablogs to follow lively online discussion and add your own thoughts.