1807–1873. Swiss-born professor of zoology at Harvard University who rejected Darwin's explanation of the origin of species, preferring instead to believe in "special creation."
1835–1902. Butler is best known for his utopian satire Erewhon and for his autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh. After reading The Origin of Species he became an enthusiastic convert to Darwinism, but he later feuded with Darwin over a translation of a German book on evolution, which Butler claimed contained a deceitful critique of his own Evolution Old and New. He was the grandson of another Samuel Butler, Darwin's headmaster at the Shrewsbury school.
1802–1871. Author of the 1844 Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, a popular evolutionist book.
1769–1832. French zoologist and comparative anatomist. Although he was a supporter of the divine creation of species and the geological theory of catastrophism, he helped prepare the way for Darwinism through his studies of anatomical classification and paleontology.
Son of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin.
Wife of Robert Darwin and mother of Charles Darwin.
Son of Charles and Emma Darwin. Born when Emma was forty-eight years old, he proved to mentally retarded.
Daughter of Charles and Emma Darwin.
Son of Charles and Emma Darwin.
Daughter of Charles and Emma Darwin.
Wife of Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin's grandfather, author of Zoonomia.
Charles Darwin's brother, opium smoker & runner in London literary circles.
Charles Darwin's father, a physician.
1805–1865. British naval officer and captain of the HMS Beagle. Despite his key role in its conception, FitzRoy remained a life-long opponent of Darwinism.
Zoologist and early colleague of Charles Darwin.
1792–1871. Well-respected astronomer and mathematician who Darwin visited in South Africa.
1817–1911. Hooker was a British botanist and a friend and supporter of Darwin. He was renowned for his work the geographical distribution of plants and as the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. He was president of the Royal Society from 1872–1877 and was knighted in 1877.
1825–1895. Huxley was a British biologist and enemy of Church authority. His staunch support of Darwin's theory earned him the nickname "Darwin's bulldog."
138–1885. Engineer who argued that natural selection was a mathematically impossible way of producing evolutionary change.
1744–1829. Full name: Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine, Chevalier de Lamarck. French biologist and evolutionist who coined the phrase "biology." He argued for the inheritance of acquired traits, a theory that Darwin initially rejected but later came to accept (incorrectly) as an auxiliary to natural selection. Lamarck's major evolutionary work was his 1809 Zoological Philosophy. He was widely criticized for speculating on the basis of insufficient evidence.
Daughter of William Owen and friend of Darwin during his Edinburgh and Cambridge years.
1820–1893. A British physicist who studied the transmission of light through the atmosphere; first person to explain why the sky is blue.
'Co-discoverer' of natural selection as the source of new species.
Friend of Erasmus Darwin, founder of a successful pottery, and grandfather of Charles Darwin.
Bishop of Oxford and opponent of Darwinism.
