To mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth English Heritage are launching an extraordinary new exhibition.
The exhibition opens on 13th February 2009 at Down House, near Orpington in Kent, where Darwin lived and worked for forty years. Darwin’s personal items, original manuscript material and the famous Beagle notebooks will be on display.
Star attractions include:
Darwin’s hat, microscope, notebooks, and on display for the first time, his copy of Das Kapital inscribed by Karl Marx
A full size replica of Darwin’s confined cabin on HMS Beagle
Exceptionally rare pages from the manuscript On the Origin of Species – only 43 pages are known to survive
Interactive displays using traditional Victorian illusion and toys
English Heritage‘s Chairman, Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe said:
“This new one million pound exhibition brings the man and his family, his painstaking research and his groun-breaking theories to life. It places Down House firmly on the international map as one of the world’s most important scientific heritage sites.“