Darwin, Charles ___ 1809-1882 ___ British ___ scientist

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Darwin was a great scientist, and is considered the father of evolutionary theory. He was born in Shrewsbury, England, but his mother died when he was eight, and he left home at 16 to study medicine at Edinburgh University. Rejecting the medical profession, though, he went to Cambridge to prepare for Holy Orders. However, this line didn't suit him either, and he accepted an invitation to serve as unpaid naturalist on a five year scientific expedition aboard the HMS Beagle. After returning, in 1839, Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood. In 1842, they moved to Down House at Downe in Kent, where they lived for the rest of their lives, bringing up 10 children, of whom only seven survived beyond puberty. Darwin worked at Down House, living off his inherited money, reading and researching widely (including a long study on barnacles). Despite sometimes being incapacitated by illnesses, he established reputations in the fields of taxonomy, geology and the distribution of flora and fauna. It was not until 1859, after painstaking consideration, that he finally published his famous theory on natural selection in 'The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'. And it took him another 12 years to publish 'The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex'. It was Darwin's research and thought processes during the five years on board the Beagle that was to lead to these revolutionary theories, and, consequently, the journal he kept during that voyage has great historic and scientific importance.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Darwin and his diaries

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1831-1836 ___ maritime travel weather nature science geology Ecuador Brazil Argentina Chile Tahiti NewZealand

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
etext
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Down House, English Heritage

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Voyage of the Beagle
 

May 2005, September 2008, March 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.