Darwin's pictures : views of evolutionary theory, 1837-1874

Author / Creator

Voss, Julia, 1974- author

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

""This attractive and readable book makes a valuable contribution to Darwin studies---precise, historically accurate, provided here in an excellent translation, and on a subject that is bound to fa...

""This attractive and readable book makes a valuable contribution to Darwin studies---precise, historically accurate, provided here in an excellent translation, and on a subject that is bound to fascinate." Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place" ""Each chapter richly details not only Darwin's preoccupation with visual depictions, but also his deep involvement in the collaborators, draftsmen, production of the visual images he seeks and struggles with. As such, the work explores the relationship between science, art, and representation; contemporary British scientific and popular culture; and the varied communities and networks with which Darwin interacts during various periods of his scientic life." Mark B. Adams, University of Pennsylvania" "In this first ever examination of Charles Darwin's sketches, drawings, and illustrations, Julia Voss presents the history of evolutionary theory told in pictures. Darwin had a lifelong interest in pictorial representations of nature, sketching out his evolutionary theory and related ideas over a period lasting more than forty years. Voss details the pictorial history of Darwin's theory of evolution, starting with his notebook sketches of 1837 and ending with the illustrations in The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). These images were profoundly significant for Darwin's long-term argument for evolutionary theory; each characterizes a different aspect of his relationship with the visual information and constitutes what can be called an "icon" of evolution. Voss shows how Darwin "thought with his eyes" and how his pictorial representations and the development and popularization of the theory of evolution were vitally interconnected."

"Not only does Voss weave about these images a story on the development and presentation of Darwin's theory, she also addresses the history of Victorian illustration, the role of images in science, the technologies of production, and the relationship between specimen, words, and images."--Jacket.

Show More