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Evolution and Maps in Chicago
By Bryan A. HollerbachIt feels apt that Chicago’s Field Museum will run exhibits on Charles Darwin and cartography concurrently later this fall: Darwin—perhaps more than any other scientist of the modern era, even Albert Einstein—mapped a stretch of terra incognita that continues to boggle the mind.
“Multiform difficulties will occur to every one, with respect to this theory,” Darwin confessed in a manuscript presented to the Linnaean Society of London in 1858. A year later, he defined “this theory” with the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In anticipation of the bicentennial of his birth on February 12, 1809, the Field’s “Darwin” presents a panorama of the English naturalist’s life and work, including, of course, his five-year tour aboard the HMS Beagle, which took him to the Galápagos Islands and inspired Origin. The exhibit, which will run till New Year’s Day 2008, also boasts Darwin’s notebooks, a reconstruction of his suburban London study and live animals—among them an iguana, one of the creatures he saw (and supped on) during the Beagle voyage.
Joining “Darwin” at the Field will be “Maps: Finding Our Place in the World” (November 2–January 27). Our earliest surviving maps date from Babylonian times, more than four millennia ago, and the Field exhibit will trace the development of cartography from clay tiles to digital downloads, from ancient surveys to the ABC’s of GPS. Our suspicion? It may well earn not just an A but a heartfelt AAA from any wife who’s ever implored her husband, “Can’t we please ask for directions?”
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The Field Museum lies almost exactly 300 miles from St. Louis, due north of Soldier Field on Lake Shore Drive. For ticket information on “Darwin” and “Maps,” call 312-922-9410 or visit fieldmuseum.org.
