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Presidential address Commemorating Darwin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2005

JANET BROWNE
JANET BROWNE
Affiliation:
Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, 210 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK.
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Abstract

This text draws attention to former ideologies of the scientific hero in order to explore the leading features of Charles Darwin's fame, both during his lifetime and beyond. Emphasis is laid on the material record of celebrity, including popular mementoes, statues and visual images. Darwin's funeral in Westminster Abbey and the main commemorations and centenary celebrations, as well as the opening of Down House as a museum in 1929, are discussed and the changing agendas behind each event outlined. It is proposed that common-place assumptions about Darwin's commitment to evidence, his impartiality and hard work contributed substantially to his rise to celebrity in the emerging domain of professional science in Britain.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 251 - 274
Copyright
© 2005 British Society for the History of Science

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Adam Wilkinson and Sharon Messenger who have helped me a great deal in getting this final version ready for publication.