March Matron

The original manuscript of a book published mid-1800s was given to the  author's children to use as drawing paper. 

Doodles of Fairy Folk

The manuscript doodles also contained a short story, written by the children, called The Fairies of the Mountain. 

An imp chases a soldier.

The story "tells the tale of Polytax and Short Shanks, whose wings have been cut off by a naughty fairy. The pair travel along a ray of light from the moon to the sun, where . . . the trees had no leaves because it was so boiling hot. The birds had hairs instead of feathers."

Illustration of a salad at war by the author's son who became a botanist.

The author married a cousin had 10 children.  

Illustrations by another of the author's sons who became an astronomer and mathematician.

Two died in childhood and one died at age 10.  Of the surviving children, only three had children of their own.  

Portrait of author drawn by his children.

"How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children." - quote by the author 

Illustration of Gog and Magog in the city.

As a young man, the author was a student of divinity. However, after the death of the author's children and seeing the human misery caused by slavery, the author became an agnostic.

1837 notebook sketch by the author.

The book, published on Nov 24, 1859, was extremely controversial and continues to cause an uproar. 

Portrait of the author as a young man.

Aware of the potential controversy, he waited 20 years to publish.

Art by an anonymous German artist 1874.

"Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved." - Sir William Schwenck Gilbert

"Man has lost the basic skill of the ape, the ability to scratch its back. Which gave it extraordinary independence, and the liberty to associate for reasons other than the need for mutual back-scratching." - Jean Baudrillard

Original title page of the first edition.

After the book was published, Darwin's children were given the original mauscript of Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection for drawing paper. 

"The recollections later in life would describe in detail the joy of swinging from a rope fastened to the ceiling on the first-floor landing: the ultimate achievement was to end their swing by standing on the newel posts of the stairs to the second floor. 

An equally favoured pastime was throwing lead darts at one another along the corridor – dangerous maybe, but Charles and Emma did give them wooden shields with which to defend themselves."