The Natural History Museum only has position statements on two things: one is on climate change and the other is related to a man who is widely regarded as one of the most influential people who has ever lived - Charles Darwin.
Most people know Darwin is important, but if they are in any doubt as to why, they shouldn't be by the end of this year, as museums will be among the hundreds of organisations celebrating both the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the book that made his name, On the Origin of Species.
Museums are able to play a central part in the celebrations mainly because of the way Darwin lived his life: he was an avid collector and an incredibly prolific writer, but most importantly for museums, he never seemed to throw anything away.
Nearly 15,000 letters written to or from Darwin have been found. He sent a huge number of specimens back from the five-year HMS Beagle voyage between 1831-36, and many of his and his family's personal artefacts still survive. There is a lot of him to go round. Nevertheless, there has been a polite museum bunfight to secure key objects for exhibitions.
One of the most high-profile exhibitions opened in November last year, Darwin at the Natural History Museum (NHM). It has been organised by New York's American Museum of Natural History, but has been adapted by the NHM, which has added new objects and rearranged the order of the displays.
"The advantage that we had over America is that we are UK-based and a lot of the institutions that would not lend to America would lend to us," says Lorraine Cornish, a conservator at the NHM who made sure her museum's objects were properly cared for on the US tour and was also involved in securing loans for the UK exhibition.
One of the objects the NHM wanted was a box owned by Annie, Darwin's first daughter, who died at the age of 10 in 1851. The box was passed on to Darwin's great-great-grandson, Randall Keynes, but he had promised it to English Heritage for the redevelopment of Down House, Darwin's Kent home.
But all was not lost, as Keynes had another box, which was given to Darwin's other daughter, Etty, after Annie died. The box, which includes shells Darwin collected during the Beagle voyage as well as hair thought to be from his beard, is now one of the key objects at the NHM's exhibition.
"English Heritage are having their own exhibition, so a number of items we wanted to borrow, they wouldn't lend, but Darwin had others," Cornish says. "We are loaning Down House objects as well, so it is about sharing."
Shared inspiration, single shows
While there is obviously competition for Darwin artefacts, museums have been working together to make the anniversary year a success.
As well as sharing objects, there is Darwin200, an organisation that is acting as a focal point for all the museum and non-museum activities. The concept was developed by Bob Bloomfield, head of innovation and special projects at the NHM.
"We saw this as a great opportunity to raise the profile of quite a contentious and misunderstood issue in society," Bloomfield says. "We thought the museum had a responsibility to make it high profile, as it's sometimes the Darwin detractors who get all the publicity."
Bloomfield says there was no money at the start so he adopted a model of mutual interest based on the National Maritime Museum's Sea Britain initiative in 2005. That national celebration was inspired by the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death in action of Admiral Lord Nelson and saw more than 2,000 events take place all around the UK.
Darwin200 has involved the creation of a brand, marketing and the development of a network to share ideas and expertise. Bloomfield says the organisation has also been successful in persuading government stakeholders to support the anniversary. And some funding has followed from the Wellcome Trust, the Department for Innovation, University and Skills, and the British Council.
Although there has been some cash, it does not seem to have attracted as much funding as some other anniversary celebrations. Brunel 200, which largely took place in the south west of England, received grants of more than £1.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and about £500,000 from the Urban Cultural Programme (Arts Council England and the Millennium Commission).
Falmouth Art Gallery, which was also involved in Brunel 200, is one of the organisations that has secured HLF money for its Darwin200 activities. A £50,000 grant will support four exhibitions, with much of the money going to community activities.
The cash will also be used to commission works that will go into the collection and to publish a catalogue. The first exhibition at Falmouth opens on 14 February and is inspired by the specimens Darwin sent to the Royal Society in London via packet ships to Falmouth.
Other projects have not been so lucky. A £2m bid to create a museum and education centre at Darwin's birthplace in Shrewsbury, was rejected and a plan for a Darwin project in Bristol also failed to get HLF funding.
Nevertheless, there are still a huge number of events going on and fortunately, his life touched a number of areas in the UK, so there is a good geographic spread.
Darwin lived and studied as young medical student in Edinburgh so there are various events in Scotland. These include an investigation by the Talbot Rice Gallery, which is part of the University of Edinburgh, into Darwin's impact on Scottish intellectual thought.
In Wales, National Museum Cardiff will stage Darwin: A Revolutionary Scientist, which will explore his links with the country. These include his relationship with the Welsh scientist Alfred Wallace and the time he spent in north Wales with the geologist Adam Sedgwick.
Coordinating efforts
Some museums have been coordinating their work to minimise the chance of repetition. This has been particularly important in Cambridge where so many of the university's institutions have links to the naturalist, who studied there.
Cambridge University Library has thousands of manuscripts related to him, while the Museum of Zoology, Sedgwick Museum and the Whipple Museum all have Darwin artefacts. There is even a college named after him. With so much material, a committee has been overseeing events.
"For almost anything we want to do on Darwin's life there is material in the library, so it was quite difficult to decide what to do," says Alison Pearn, the assistant director of Darwin Correspondence Project, which is based at the university library. "But it was decided by the Darwin committee that the library would have an exhibition that concentrates on the Beagle voyage, as that unites all the collections."
This year also marks the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University, so it wanted something about how Cambridge was instrumental in Darwin ending up on the Beagle. The exhibition opens on 16 July and will bring together specimens and manuscripts that have not been together since they were on the ship.
A month earlier, a very different Darwin exhibition will open at the university's Fitzwilliam Museum. Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts will explore the naturalist's interests in the arts and the wide range of artistic responses to his ideas in the later 19th century.
"It is fundamentally different to lots of other exhibitions, as it is not biographical," says Jane Munro, senior assistant keeper at the Fitzwilliam Museum. "What has been remarkable is people's willingness to engage with the idea of the exhibition. A lot of scientists find it very interesting to see the ways that people have responded to Darwin."
In addition to the library and Fitzwilliam temporary shows, Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Science is using a £519,000 HLF grant to create a permanent exhibition looking at Darwin's work as a geologist. This will open in July and will display the museum's collection of rock and mineral specimens that Darwin collected during his Beagle voyage.
The Sedgwick Museum project will be one of the developments during 2009 that will shed new light on Darwin and leave a legacy for the future. Other major capital projects also opening this year include the completion of the redevelopment of Down House by English Heritage, at a cost of about £1m.
The most high-profile scheme will be the NHM's unveiling of the £78m Darwin Centre phase two in September. The eight-storey building will house the museum's 20 million plant and insect specimens in a giant cocoon-shaped structure. It will complete the Darwin Centre, the first phase of which opened in 2002 and houses the museum's 22 million zoological specimens stored in alcohol.
Away from the capital projects, Bob Bloomfield hopes that Darwin200 will help to improve the public's awareness of the naturalist's ideas as important and relevant to today. He is also looking further ahead.
"Inevitably, when thinking of the origin of species, you get to thinking about the future of the species," Bloomfield says. "It is not just all about extinction, but about what will happen in the future."
With the threats to biodiversity caused by factors such climate change, pollution and habitat destruction, Bloomfield and many others feel that Darwin's ideas are more relevant than ever before.
Most people know Darwin is important, but if they are in any doubt as to why, they shouldn't be by the end of this year, as museums will be among the hundreds of organisations celebrating both the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the book that made his name, On the Origin of Species.
Museums are able to play a central part in the celebrations mainly because of the way Darwin lived his life: he was an avid collector and an incredibly prolific writer, but most importantly for museums, he never seemed to throw anything away.
Nearly 15,000 letters written to or from Darwin have been found. He sent a huge number of specimens back from the five-year HMS Beagle voyage between 1831-36, and many of his and his family's personal artefacts still survive. There is a lot of him to go round. Nevertheless, there has been a polite museum bunfight to secure key objects for exhibitions.
One of the most high-profile exhibitions opened in November last year, Darwin at the Natural History Museum (NHM). It has been organised by New York's American Museum of Natural History, but has been adapted by the NHM, which has added new objects and rearranged the order of the displays.
"The advantage that we had over America is that we are UK-based and a lot of the institutions that would not lend to America would lend to us," says Lorraine Cornish, a conservator at the NHM who made sure her museum's objects were properly cared for on the US tour and was also involved in securing loans for the UK exhibition.
One of the objects the NHM wanted was a box owned by Annie, Darwin's first daughter, who died at the age of 10 in 1851. The box was passed on to Darwin's great-great-grandson, Randall Keynes, but he had promised it to English Heritage for the redevelopment of Down House, Darwin's Kent home.
But all was not lost, as Keynes had another box, which was given to Darwin's other daughter, Etty, after Annie died. The box, which includes shells Darwin collected during the Beagle voyage as well as hair thought to be from his beard, is now one of the key objects at the NHM's exhibition.
"English Heritage are having their own exhibition, so a number of items we wanted to borrow, they wouldn't lend, but Darwin had others," Cornish says. "We are loaning Down House objects as well, so it is about sharing."
Shared inspiration, single shows
While there is obviously competition for Darwin artefacts, museums have been working together to make the anniversary year a success.
As well as sharing objects, there is Darwin200, an organisation that is acting as a focal point for all the museum and non-museum activities. The concept was developed by Bob Bloomfield, head of innovation and special projects at the NHM.
"We saw this as a great opportunity to raise the profile of quite a contentious and misunderstood issue in society," Bloomfield says. "We thought the museum had a responsibility to make it high profile, as it's sometimes the Darwin detractors who get all the publicity."
Bloomfield says there was no money at the start so he adopted a model of mutual interest based on the National Maritime Museum's Sea Britain initiative in 2005. That national celebration was inspired by the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death in action of Admiral Lord Nelson and saw more than 2,000 events take place all around the UK.
Darwin200 has involved the creation of a brand, marketing and the development of a network to share ideas and expertise. Bloomfield says the organisation has also been successful in persuading government stakeholders to support the anniversary. And some funding has followed from the Wellcome Trust, the Department for Innovation, University and Skills, and the British Council.
Although there has been some cash, it does not seem to have attracted as much funding as some other anniversary celebrations. Brunel 200, which largely took place in the south west of England, received grants of more than £1.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and about £500,000 from the Urban Cultural Programme (Arts Council England and the Millennium Commission).
Falmouth Art Gallery, which was also involved in Brunel 200, is one of the organisations that has secured HLF money for its Darwin200 activities. A £50,000 grant will support four exhibitions, with much of the money going to community activities.
The cash will also be used to commission works that will go into the collection and to publish a catalogue. The first exhibition at Falmouth opens on 14 February and is inspired by the specimens Darwin sent to the Royal Society in London via packet ships to Falmouth.
Other projects have not been so lucky. A £2m bid to create a museum and education centre at Darwin's birthplace in Shrewsbury, was rejected and a plan for a Darwin project in Bristol also failed to get HLF funding.
Nevertheless, there are still a huge number of events going on and fortunately, his life touched a number of areas in the UK, so there is a good geographic spread.
Darwin lived and studied as young medical student in Edinburgh so there are various events in Scotland. These include an investigation by the Talbot Rice Gallery, which is part of the University of Edinburgh, into Darwin's impact on Scottish intellectual thought.
In Wales, National Museum Cardiff will stage Darwin: A Revolutionary Scientist, which will explore his links with the country. These include his relationship with the Welsh scientist Alfred Wallace and the time he spent in north Wales with the geologist Adam Sedgwick.
Coordinating efforts
Some museums have been coordinating their work to minimise the chance of repetition. This has been particularly important in Cambridge where so many of the university's institutions have links to the naturalist, who studied there.
Cambridge University Library has thousands of manuscripts related to him, while the Museum of Zoology, Sedgwick Museum and the Whipple Museum all have Darwin artefacts. There is even a college named after him. With so much material, a committee has been overseeing events.
"For almost anything we want to do on Darwin's life there is material in the library, so it was quite difficult to decide what to do," says Alison Pearn, the assistant director of Darwin Correspondence Project, which is based at the university library. "But it was decided by the Darwin committee that the library would have an exhibition that concentrates on the Beagle voyage, as that unites all the collections."
This year also marks the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University, so it wanted something about how Cambridge was instrumental in Darwin ending up on the Beagle. The exhibition opens on 16 July and will bring together specimens and manuscripts that have not been together since they were on the ship.
A month earlier, a very different Darwin exhibition will open at the university's Fitzwilliam Museum. Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts will explore the naturalist's interests in the arts and the wide range of artistic responses to his ideas in the later 19th century.
"It is fundamentally different to lots of other exhibitions, as it is not biographical," says Jane Munro, senior assistant keeper at the Fitzwilliam Museum. "What has been remarkable is people's willingness to engage with the idea of the exhibition. A lot of scientists find it very interesting to see the ways that people have responded to Darwin."
In addition to the library and Fitzwilliam temporary shows, Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Science is using a £519,000 HLF grant to create a permanent exhibition looking at Darwin's work as a geologist. This will open in July and will display the museum's collection of rock and mineral specimens that Darwin collected during his Beagle voyage.
The Sedgwick Museum project will be one of the developments during 2009 that will shed new light on Darwin and leave a legacy for the future. Other major capital projects also opening this year include the completion of the redevelopment of Down House by English Heritage, at a cost of about £1m.
The most high-profile scheme will be the NHM's unveiling of the £78m Darwin Centre phase two in September. The eight-storey building will house the museum's 20 million plant and insect specimens in a giant cocoon-shaped structure. It will complete the Darwin Centre, the first phase of which opened in 2002 and houses the museum's 22 million zoological specimens stored in alcohol.
Away from the capital projects, Bob Bloomfield hopes that Darwin200 will help to improve the public's awareness of the naturalist's ideas as important and relevant to today. He is also looking further ahead.
"Inevitably, when thinking of the origin of species, you get to thinking about the future of the species," Bloomfield says. "It is not just all about extinction, but about what will happen in the future."
With the threats to biodiversity caused by factors such climate change, pollution and habitat destruction, Bloomfield and many others feel that Darwin's ideas are more relevant than ever before.
Misconceptions
For such an important figure, there are lots of misconceptions about Charles Darwin that museums might have to deal with.
John van Wyhe, a historian of science at the University of Cambridge and the founder of Darwin Online, points out a few of these in the Guardian's online coverage of Darwin. One of the misconceptions is that the title of the naturalist's most famous book is often given as The Origin of the Species, which implies it is about the human species. In fact, the correct title is On the Origin of Species, and it is about how evolution applied to all species.
People also often believe Darwin coined the phrase "survival of the fittest". He did not - it came from the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Many people also think Darwin said we are descended from monkeys. He did not - he just said monkeys, apes and humans have a common ancestor.
By far the most contested area concerning Darwin relates to religion and, specifically, creationism. Many Darwin experts think the debate distracts from the real areas of interest surrounding his theories.
An Ipsos Mori poll conducted for the BBC in 2006 found that 22 per cent of the British public believed that God created humankind within the last 10,000 years. A further 17 per cent believed the intelligent design theory, which says that certain features of living things are best explained by the intervention of a supernatural being.
In the US, polling firm Gallup has been asking similar questions for a number of years. Only 14 per cent of those surveyed in 2008 believed humans developed with God having no part in the process; and 44 per cent believed God created human beings in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.
For such an important figure, there are lots of misconceptions about Charles Darwin that museums might have to deal with.
John van Wyhe, a historian of science at the University of Cambridge and the founder of Darwin Online, points out a few of these in the Guardian's online coverage of Darwin. One of the misconceptions is that the title of the naturalist's most famous book is often given as The Origin of the Species, which implies it is about the human species. In fact, the correct title is On the Origin of Species, and it is about how evolution applied to all species.
People also often believe Darwin coined the phrase "survival of the fittest". He did not - it came from the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Many people also think Darwin said we are descended from monkeys. He did not - he just said monkeys, apes and humans have a common ancestor.
By far the most contested area concerning Darwin relates to religion and, specifically, creationism. Many Darwin experts think the debate distracts from the real areas of interest surrounding his theories.
An Ipsos Mori poll conducted for the BBC in 2006 found that 22 per cent of the British public believed that God created humankind within the last 10,000 years. A further 17 per cent believed the intelligent design theory, which says that certain features of living things are best explained by the intervention of a supernatural being.
In the US, polling firm Gallup has been asking similar questions for a number of years. Only 14 per cent of those surveyed in 2008 believed humans developed with God having no part in the process; and 44 per cent believed God created human beings in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.
Exhibition highlights
Struggle to Exist, Baltic, Gateshead
A group show that will look at the theory of evolution through contemporary art. It will open in April and will feature artists such as Mark Dion and Marcus Coates.
Darwin: A Revolutionary Scientist, National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Wales's Darwin exhibition (7 February-October) will emphasise the time Darwin spent in Wales studying geology. He went hiking in North Wales when he was young and returned there with geologist Adam Sedgwick.
Darwin's Voyage of Discovery, Plymouth Museum
Plymouth will use a timeline to explore Darwin's journey on the HMS Beagle, which started in Devonport (now part of the city of Plymouth). The exhibition (24 January-18 April) will feature specimens from the museum's natural history collections.
Endless Forms, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Endless Forms (16 June-4 October) will consider artistic responses to Darwin's ideas. Themes will include visual representations of the struggle for existence, natural and sexual selection, and the origin and descent of man.
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
Darwin lived in Edinburgh as a young medical student and two exhibitions will use historic and contemporary artefacts to investigate the impact he had on Scotland. Both exhibitions will open in October.
Voyages of Discovery, Falmouth Art Gallery
The first in a series of four Falmouth Art Gallery Darwin exhibitions runs from 14 Feburary-18 April. It will include digital art, installations and images of the Galapagos Islands. It will also feature photographs by Mark Webster from his new book, Underwater Cornwall.
Struggle to Exist, Baltic, Gateshead
A group show that will look at the theory of evolution through contemporary art. It will open in April and will feature artists such as Mark Dion and Marcus Coates.
Darwin: A Revolutionary Scientist, National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Wales's Darwin exhibition (7 February-October) will emphasise the time Darwin spent in Wales studying geology. He went hiking in North Wales when he was young and returned there with geologist Adam Sedgwick.
Darwin's Voyage of Discovery, Plymouth Museum
Plymouth will use a timeline to explore Darwin's journey on the HMS Beagle, which started in Devonport (now part of the city of Plymouth). The exhibition (24 January-18 April) will feature specimens from the museum's natural history collections.
Endless Forms, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Endless Forms (16 June-4 October) will consider artistic responses to Darwin's ideas. Themes will include visual representations of the struggle for existence, natural and sexual selection, and the origin and descent of man.
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
Darwin lived in Edinburgh as a young medical student and two exhibitions will use historic and contemporary artefacts to investigate the impact he had on Scotland. Both exhibitions will open in October.
Voyages of Discovery, Falmouth Art Gallery
The first in a series of four Falmouth Art Gallery Darwin exhibitions runs from 14 Feburary-18 April. It will include digital art, installations and images of the Galapagos Islands. It will also feature photographs by Mark Webster from his new book, Underwater Cornwall.
Links
Museums Journal review, January 2009, p50: Darwin at the Natural History Museum
www.darwin200.org
Museums Journal review, January 2009, p50: Darwin at the Natural History Museum
www.darwin200.org