Charles Darwin Voyage Of The

Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago on the 12 February 1809 into a life of privilege and education. The father of the theory of the survival of the fittest was to discover that bringing up his own family came with its share of joys and challenges.

Charles Darwin’s Background

Charles Darwin's family were prominent and wealthy society members. His father Robert Darwin was a wealthy Shropshire physician and Charles and his brother Erasmus were expected to follow suit. Darwin had other ideas. His epic voyage on the Beagle (1831-1836), as the onboard naturalist, changed the course of his life and led him on the path to his theories of evolution. Thereafter, Darwin’s daily musing and detailed studies of the natural world took place surrounded by his large and involved family. The result was the publication of a large body of scientific tomes including the Origin of the Species (1859)

Charles Darwin's Marriage

Darwin was a man who enjoyed the process of collecting and cataloguing. By the end of the early 1830s, his cost benefit analysis of marriage convinced him that the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages. Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood (1808-1886) in 1839. An inauspicious start to marriage perhaps but Emma and Charles became devoted to each other.

Caa Voyage