Charles Darwin
Born in the town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England in 1809, Charles Darwin was a world-renowned naturalist, best known as the father of the theory of evolution through natural and sexual selection.
Darwin began his higher education by studying medicine, although he quickly decided that it was not his field of choice even though he remained keen on science as a whole. His departure from medical studies led to his enrollment in the course of Divinity at Cambridge (it was common for the clergy at the time to be part-time naturalists, since it was considered ideal to be knowledgeable about God’s creations.) It was after his schooling that he embarked on a five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle. The journey was highly beneficial in that it allowed Darwin to amass and study a huge collection of fossilized and living specimens and to experience firsthand a wide variety of different cultures.
Upon returning from the expedition, Darwin was something of a celebrity in the scientific community. His reputation as a naturalist and geologist continued to strengthen and with the publishing of his revolutionary book On the Origin of the Species by Natural Selection he became the propagator of what might be viewed as the single most influential theory of all time: Darwinian evolution.
Web Resources On Charles Darwin
SEP: Darwinism
Wikipedia: Charles Darwin
Book Resources On Charles DarwinThe Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882 by Charles Darwin, Nora Barlow
From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin’s Four Great Books by Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson
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