To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s
birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of
Species, The Bancroft Library is mounting an exhibition of rare books,
manuscripts, images and scientific specimens drawn from the collections of
nine of UC Berkeley’s libraries and museums.

The exhibition opens in The Bancroft Library Gallery on August 13 and closes
December 23, 2009. For Gallery hours visit the Libraries’ website at
http://lib.berkeley.edu.

The exhibition explores the formative influences on Darwin’s thought, the
books he read that gave him his early stimulation, his celebrated
round-the-world voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle, his major ideas and works, and
reactions to the publication of the Origin – controversy that continues to
this day as reflected in such ideologies as creationism, social Darwinism,
and intelligent design.

The exhibition brings together for the first time material from the Bancroft
and Bioscience and Natural Resources libraries, the Museum of Paleontology,
the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, the University and Jepson Herbaria, the
Essig Museum of Entomology, and the Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

Highlights of the exhibition include the Libraries’ unique collection of
Darwin’s published books, rare illustrated books on natural history and
travel, dozens of specimens of exotic insects and plants and South
American fossil specimens 1.2 to 16 million years old, and two giant
Galapagos tortoise shells.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact David Farrell in The Bancroft Library:
dfarrell@library.berkeley.edu; 510-643-9498