Today is the 198th anniversary of English naturalist Charles Darwin's birth, and everyone, evolutionist or not, is invited.
The public is welcome to a birthday tea at noon on the first floor of the Life Sciences A wing. Celebrations will include tea, scones and a brief history of the first formative years of Darwin's life, especially his voyage on the ship HMS Beagle at 22 years old.
"People think of Darwin as an old guy with a beard, and here he is [on this voyage], a young guy in his 20s," said ASU Herbarium curator Les Landrum.
Landrum will discuss the impact of the voyage on Darwin's life during his short talk at today's event.
Darwin was chosen for the HMS Beagle voyage to accompany Captain Robert FitzRoy for a five-year survey of the coasts of South America, Landrum said.
"[FitzRoy] was afraid he might become too lonely," Landrum said. "He needed somebody to go along with him, and he thought, well, a naturalist would be a good idea."
During this trip, Darwin collected many plant and animal specimens that he compared to the specimens he later found on the Galapagos Islands, Landrum said.
"He realized that many of the animals and plants in the Galapagos Islands had their closest relatives in South America, but they were different," Landrum said.
These discoveries were only the beginning of more that would influence Darwin's writings, including his famous book, "The Origin of Species," Landrum said.
Biology senior Lindsey Van Sambeek, who helped plan today's exhibit, said the HMS Beagle voyage gave Darwin a variety of new ideas.
"It [was] very formative in showing him the
diversity of life in different regions which led him to some theories, not just about evolution and survival of the fittest but also to some geological ideas," she said.
The exhibit will include fish specimens that Darwin collected on his voyage, along with maps and pictures.
Open for the first time to the public, this event, sponsored by the School of Life Sciences and the Natural History Collections, is the beginning of a series that will continue until the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.
"Since this is his 198th birthday, we're going to split his life up into three sections," Van Sambeek said.
This year will cover the first third of Darwin's life, and the next two birthday celebrations will cover the second and third pieces, respectively.
These three events will not focus on the science and controversy that Darwin introduced, Landrum said.
"We're not going to talk so much about evolutionism, we're going to talk about history," Landrum said. "Anybody who's interested about history, even though they might not agree about what Darwin said, will find it interesting."
Reach the reporter at: stephanie.naufel@asu.edu.
