Charles Darwin: On The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection

Charles Darwin was born February 2, 1809 to a wealthy English family comprised of scientists. Since childhood, he gained an interest in the natural sciences and at age 16 began studying at a university. After graduating from Christ’s College at Cambridge in 1831, his mentor John Stevens Henslow encouraged him to take a five-year voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle. It was there that he began to realize his theory of evolution. Darwin published his research in book form in 1859, titled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. (“Charles Darwin”) In contrast Alfred Russel Wallace was born on January 8, 1823, to a working class family where his only education came from grammar school. He had a job working as a land surveyor, where is when he took an interest in the natural sciences. He read the writings of famous naturalists like Carl Linnaeus and Alexander von Humboldt and endeavored to travel to research himself. He took two voyages, the first one to Brazil, and the second one to the West Indies, where he collected samples and took notes on his research. During his travels, he formulated his own ideas about evolution and natural selection. He published multiple academic papers and two books and won many awards for his work by the time he died. (“Wallace”)

Upon receiving the essay and realizing how incredibly similar his and Wallace’s ideas were, Darwin showed the essay to fellow scientists Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker, who were aware of Darwin’s research. The two arranged for Darwin’s and Wallace’s theories to be presented at a meeting of the Linnean Society, but decided to have Darwin’s writings read first. At this time the theory of evolution was referred to as the Darwin-Wallace theory.