Science Night: The Origin of The Origin

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is, in the words of R.B. Freeman, "certainly the most important biological book ever written". In this talk, the last of the Darwin 1809-1859-2009 series at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, we take a look at the surprisingly dramatic circumstances of its publication on November 24, 1859. In the spring of 1858, while at work on his "species book", Darwin received a manuscript from Alfred Russel Wallace, a correspondent of his working in the Malay Archipelago. In this manuscript, Darwin saw his own theory in miniature, and despaired that his originality would be forestalled. We will see how Darwins' friends Charles Lyell and J.D. Hooker arranged for a joint publication by Darwin and Wallace, and how, now spurred on, Darwin completed an "abstract" of his species book: the Origin, which, at 500 pages, was a rather substantial abstract.

Gregory C. Mayer is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at UW-Parkside, where he teaches evolution, ecology, zoology, and statistics. He did his undergraduate work at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and received his masters and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Following his graduate work, he did postdoctoral research at the National Museum of Natural History, and the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum. His research and teaching have taken him many places, including Central America, South America, throughout the West Indies, and to Darwin's own enchanted isles, the Galapagos.