{ feuilleton }

Man is But a Worm by Edward Linley Sambourne (1882).
Happy birthday Charles Darwin. The reaction to Darwin’s work from Punch and other journals was typical. While his studies remain controversial among those who believe there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark, his life and work are now celebrated on the Bank of England’s Ten Pound Note [...]

Attenborough: Genesis? It can go forth and multiply

Charles Darwin’s walking stick from the Wellcome Collection.
Happy Darwin Day.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Prince Iskandar’s horoscope
• Vanitas paintings
• Giant Skeleton and the Chocolate Jesus
• Very Hungry God
• History of the skull as symbol

The horoscope of Prince Iskandar, grandson of Tamerlane, the Turkman Mongol conqueror, by Imad al-Din Mahmud al-Kashi, showing the positions of the heavens at the moment of Iskandar’s birth on 25th April 1384.
From the Wellcome Trust image collection. Considering the Wellcome Trust’s medical background, there’s a surprising amount of non-scientific material in its image library, [...]