Dialogues with Darwin

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection has produced more dialogue than any other scientific idea in modern history. Dialogues with Darwin--an exhibition opening at the American Philosophical Society Museum on 17 April 2009--will continue the conversation. In the APS Museum gallery, commissioned artwork and visitor responses will be combined with a selection of books, letters, and manuscripts from the American Philosophical Society’s own Darwin collection--the largest outside of Cambridge, England. The APS collection includes first-edition volumes, vibrant illustrations from Darwin’s South American travels, and the handwritten title page of On the Origin of Species. Blending these objects with contemporary art and visitor contributions, the gallery will become a space of exchange and reinterpretation of historical materials.

Before this exhibition opens in April 2009, you can visit the American Philosophical Society Museum on Flickr. Along with several preview images of documents that will appear in the exhibition, you can see research images of “curator’s cuts”--items in the APS Darwin collections that must be excluded from the exhibition in the gallery due to space and thematic considerations. Instead of relegating these images to the basement, for Dialogues with Darwin they are presented to you to examine, comment on, and tag.