Charles Darwin Celebrated in Dual Exhibitions at The New York Public Library

Visual assets

MAY 3, 2023—The New York Public Library, in partnership with Cambridge University Library, presents the exhibition, Charles Darwin: A Life in Letters. The exhibition opens on May 5 at the Library’s iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and celebrates the recent completion of the Darwin Correspondence Project, a 45-year endeavor to publish all of Charles Darwin’s letters. 

After his five-year voyage on the Beagle early in his life, Darwin’s health broke down, and while working largely from home, he used the postal service to conduct research with collaborators around the world. On display will be a selection of original correspondence exchanged between Darwin and his family, friends, and fellow researchers from Brazil to Italy to South Africa to Australia to his own garden. The exhibition is presented in the Wachenheim Gallery on the first floor of the Schwarzman Building and will be on view through August 5, 2023. 

Visitors to the exhibition will also see portraits and objects from Darwin’s world: one of his plant specimens from the Galápagos Islands; a sketch map of the Andes; and a page from On the Origin of Species re-used by the Darwin children for an art project. 

"The New York Public Library is thrilled to bring Charles Darwin's fascinating life and work to our visitors through the Charles Darwin: A Life in Letters exhibition. We invite our visitors to delve deeper into the mind of a curious and enthusiastic naturalist who changed the way we understand the world around us. Darwin’s discoveries demonstrate how dogged and persistent research can produce discoveries that change the world and the value of collaborating with people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. We hope this exhibition inspires generations to explore and push the boundaries of science,” said Elizabeth Denlinger, Curator of the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle and co-curator of this exhibition along with Dr. Alison M. Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project.

The Library has also curated Charles Darwin: Off the Page, a complementary collection of portraits, maps, and illustrations. The installations, located on the third floor galleries, show both the larger world of Darwin’s work and the intimate spaces of his home, Down House, shared with Emma Darwin and their seven children.

The Rayner Special Collections Wing will feature reimagined portraits of Darwin’s collaborators by the London photographer Leonora Saunders. Saunders photographed sitters in a similar line of work to that of the historical figures they portray, figures who were underrepresented in Darwin’s day. For example, Mary Treat, a botanist and entomologist from Vineland, New Jersey, who exchanged research with Darwin, is portrayed by the botanist Sandy Knapp; and John Edmonstone, a formerly enslaved man from what is now Guyana, who taught a young Charles Darwin taxidermy, is portrayed by Miranda Lowe, a Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum, London. 

In the Print Gallery, environmental graphics of Darwin's personal world line the walls, flanked by maps showing the global reach of his correspondence both in general and in particular for his late work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). The Library’s collection of photographs of those expressions by the French physiologist G.B. Duchenne de Boulogne will be on view, alongside contemporary illustrations by Mark Pernice of the twining and insectivorous plants which Darwin researched in his last years.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, Jonathan Altman, and Miriam and Ira D. Wallach. 

Support for the Cambridge University Library exhibition programme is provided by the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation and the Friends of Cambridge University Library.  

The Darwin Correspondence Project (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) has been generously funded by both private donors and the following institutions: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Arts and Humanities Research Council, The British Academy, The Evolution Education Trust, The Golden Family Foundation, The Isaac Newton Trust, The John Templeton Foundation, Mellon Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The National  Science Foundation, The Natural Environment Research Council, The Parasol Foundation, The Pilgrim Trust, The Royal Society of London, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, and The Wellcome Trust.

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.