Barnacles, beetles, finches and fishes: Charles Darwin’s specimen collections
by Ed Turner, 5-07-18
Darwin’s beetles. © University of Cambridge / Julieta Sarmiento Photography
As the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology reopens to reveal its world-leading collections, Curator of Insects, Dr Ed Turner, discusses their collection of specimens collected by Charles Darwin
Darwin spent two years at Christ’s College in Cambridge, studying to be a man of the cloth, but he ended up spending a lot of his time studying natural history, with people like John Stevens Henslow and Adam Sedgwick, both extremely important in the young Darwin’s development.
Darwin was already interested in natural history and knew quite a lot about biology from being up in Edinburgh, where he was studying for a medical degree. However, this didn’t work out, which is why he came to Cambridge.
https://museumcrush.org/barnacles-beetles-finches-and-fishes-charles-darwins-specimen-collections/
