1809-1882
Biologist

Changing Careers. Born in Shrewsbury, England, Charles Robert Darwin was the grandson of the innovative potter Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) and the noted scientist Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802). Educated initially in the classics, Charles Darwin entered the University of Edinburgh at age sixteen to study medicine but left two years later, before completing a degree. His family intervened, sending him to Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1827 to study theology. Instead, however, Darwin turned to the field of study beloved of his grandfather Erasmus: the collection of plant, animal, and geological specimens.

Naturalist. Recognizing Darwin's true vocation, Cambridge botanist John Stevens Henslow helped to get the young man a position as a naturalist on a surveying mission aboard the HMS Beagle. Between 1831 and 1836 the Beagle visited many exotic locations in and around South America, including the Galapagos Islands, and then continued across the South Pacific, eventually circumnavigating the...