Tag: evolution

Microcephaly is a word that has come from nowhere to the newspapers’ front pages in a surprisingly short time, owing to the Zika virus outbreak in Brazil coinciding with the preparations for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Congenital… Continue reading

An old favourite from the Library collections, The Evolution of Household Articles has been digitised. We’ve used some of its quirky images on the blog before, and now it’s available for everyone to enjoy, in glorious detail, in our player.… Continue reading

Stating the obvious: when you write someone a letter, you don’t keep it.  These days, e-mail or word-processing give us the chance to keep a complete record of the correspondence we send out, but for much of human history a… Continue reading

As we come to the close of the year, 2011 saw not one but two films concerned with attitudes to our ancestors – Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Project Nim. Fiction, as well as legislation, has a… Continue reading

The idea of man’s evolution from animals is an ancient one. Some statements on the subject by the Greek philosopher Anaximander (ca. 610–after 546 BC): “The first living creatures were born in moisture, enclosed in thorny casings, and as their… Continue reading

This Japanese woodcut (left: click on image to enlarge;  by K. Egawa after a painting by Ryūrikyō, 18th century. Wellcome Library no. 730398i) can be considered from several points of view, one of which is its unwitting role as an illustration… Continue reading

Today is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. This first edition consisted of 1,250 copies, with the rapid success of the book leading to a second edition of 3,000 copies being brought… Continue reading

This week’s Wellcome Library Insight session, is a joint event held with Wellcome Collection. Darwin’s Inheritance will draw on a range of objects, archives and illustrative materials, in order to contextualise the life and work of Charles Darwin and investigate… Continue reading

Tomorrow’s Wellcome Library Insight session, is a joint event held with Wellcome Collection. Darwin’s Inheritance will draw on a range of objects, archives and illustrative materials, in order to contextualise the life and work of Charles Darwin and investigate the… Continue reading

The Wellcome Library’s Archives and Manuscripts department recently purchased a manuscript letter accompanied by a printed pamphlet by Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). This letter has been added to our small group of writings by the great naturalist, explorer, geographer, biologist… Continue reading