Darwin’s Children’s Art Saved a Bit of His Science

Charles Darwin’s kids doodled all over several pages of - and notes for - the original manuscript of his historic 1859 book, which launched the field of evolutionary biology: “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”

His children’s art thus preserved some science history, for those precious pages were saved—but much of the 600-page original manuscript was thrown out. Only 45 pages exist.

Darwin’s children’s art continues to help science today, Kendra Snyder, Manager of Science Communication at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), told Bioscience Technology. She said that AMNH’s Darwin collection has attracted “quite a bit of interest lately,” as a result of AMNH’s digitization of 111 of the children’s drawings this month, 17 of which appear on their father’s drafts and notes.

The AMNH released the images last month in celebration of Darwin’s 206^th birthday.

Darwin had ten children. It is unknown who committed the artistic misdeed(s), although many bets are on son Francis, a naturalist, as the doodles are rife with depictions of colorful plant and animal life.

One highlight in the kiddie collection is a picture of a house, leading to what is apparently Darwin’s famous “thinking path.”

Another highly imaginative and relevant picture is called--by the University of Cambridge Library, which passed the images to the AMNH— “The Battle of the Fruit and Vegetable Soldiers.”

Attention has come from all over. A New Yorker piece is trending. The Washington Post wrote, “On one side of the graying piece of paper, two watercolor soldiers charge toward one another, one sitting astride a carrot while the other rides an eggplant. And on the other? Page 40 of the first — and only — handwritten draft of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” arguably the most important text in the history of biology.”

AMNH Darwin Manuscript Project manager David Kohn told the Post that, in addition to Francis, culprits appear to include son George, who became an astronomer and mathematician; and Horace, who became an engineer. (Their initials appear to be inscribed on some drawings.) Kohn notes that Darwin employed his children to help him in collecting specimens, as the drawings would appear to make clear.

The AMNH Darwin Manuscripts Project is the largest high-quality digital archive of Darwin’s writing. Its DARBASE database offers 96,000 pages of Darwin manuscripts, represented by 16,094 high resolution digital images. So far 9,871 manuscript pages have been transcribed. There are 57 pages of Darwin’s children’s drawings, nine on the pages of Charles’s “On the Origin of Species.”

The project mirrors the underlying structure of the Charles Darwin Papers in Cambridge University Library, where Darwin left his papers upon his death in April 1882.

“Aubergine and Carrot Cavalry” and its “B” side, “‘Origin’ manuscript Page 40, Section 1: Variation Under Domestication,” are among thousands of images added this month to DARBASE from Cambridge. All told, rare elder Darwin pages sharing space with the children’s doodles are: four pages from the original manuscript of the Origin of Species, two Origin Portfolios type notes, nine pages of Cirripedia, and one page of Orchids.

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