Darwin’s Journeys

Ruthin’s celebration of Charles Darwin begins on Thursday 6th August, the anniversary of the day, in 1831, when the great man stayed overnight in the town. Ruthin Library will be transformed for the occasion, with displays and banners charting the background of his great voyage, and telling us more about what he found. The displays have been given to us by the British Library, where they formed part of their exhibition earlier this year. Dr Steve Ramm, lecturer and teacher in evolutionary biology at Liverpool University, who lives in Ruthin, will launch the exhibition, with a

talk entitled “Darwin’s Journeys”, which will take place at the Library on 6th August, at 7pm. His use—journeys—is deliberate. He will talk first of the geological journey which Darwin and his mentor, the Revd Adam Sedgwick, took through the Vale of Clwyd in 1831. Then, Dr Ramm will recount, in outline, the Voyage of the Beagle. And, finally, he will discuss Darwln’s Intellectual Journey from the time that he returned from the Galapagos to the publication of his great work, The Origin of Species. The exhibition will stay open until the end of the Heritage Weekend on 27th September. Expect to see a library transformed by 'darwinians'.

As printed in the July 2009 edition