Darwin’s Garden Exhibition Opens at The New York Botanical Garden

NEW YORK, April 25 /PRNewswire/ — The untold story of Charles Darwin’s lifelong fascination and work with plants, including how flowers have evolved their extreme beauty and how plants are sensitive creatures responding to the least beam of sunlight and the pull of gravity, is presented in an exhibition entitled Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure at The New York Botanical Garden on April 25-June 15, 2008.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080425/NYF059 )

Darwin’s Garden includes exhibitions of living plants and historical documents in three Botanical Garden venues: the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, LuEsther T. Mertz Library gallery, and Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, plus an “evolutionary tour” of living plants demonstrating key points on the evolutionary Tree of Life. It paints a portrait of Darwin as a naturalist and plantsman and shows how Darwin’s botanical experiments and discoveries helped shape his contributions to the understanding of life in general.

Darwin historian David Kohn, Ph.D., comments, “Only in his work as a botanist can we truly see all the dimensions of Darwin as a scientist — that is as a successful collector, as a powerful theorist, as an insightful observer, and as a rigorous and almost prophetic experimenter.” Professor Kohn curated the exhibition in the Mertz Library and advising on the other components of Darwin’s Garden.

Numerous events and programs are scheduled throughout the exhibition, most notably a symposium with leading Darwin scholars in early May.

Darwin’s Own Garden Re-created

The exhibition in the Haupt Conservatory focuses on Darwin’s work with living plants, evoking Darwin’s own garden, greenhouse, and experimental beds where he conducted botanical research. It tells the story of how careful observation of the plants in his garden and greenhouse inspired Darwin’s groundbreaking thinking about natural selection and evolution. The exhibition re-creates Darwin’s gardens at Down House, his home in England, and the surrounding orchards and meadows where the naturalist made many scientific observations. Primroses, insectivorous plants, orchids, and climbing plants, all subjects of Darwin’s research and writings, are featured in the exhibition. Other plants illustrate the role plants played in the evolution of Darwin’s ideas and bring to life the kitchen garden at Down House as well as the famous “sandwalk” where Darwin made careful observation of nature and plants, the basis for much of his break-through thinking.

Displays also evoke Darwin’s experimental studies and his investigations into pollination and the power of movement in plants.

   Darwin’s Garden in the Haupt Conservatory runs through June 15, 2008.                       Darwin’s Botany in His Own Words  

The exhibition in the Mertz Library’s William D. Rondina and Giovanni Foroni LoFaro Gallery includes historical documents exploring Darwin’s deep personal relationship with plants, beginning in childhood. It interweaves information about Darwin as a person with the story of his rich botanical ideas, featuring Darwin’s own writings and collections. Illustrated books, manuscripts, and other documents offer insight into his thinking and demonstrate the importance of botany throughout his life. Most of the materials come from Darwin’s own manuscripts in Cambridge University Library and from the Mertz Library’s extensive collection of 19th-century botanical works. Additional materials are on loan from the University Herbarium at Cambridge, the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library in London, and the Archives at the Harvard Botany Libraries.

The exhibition starts with Darwin’s botanical heritage, his family history, and his upbringing and proceeds through his exposure to 18th- and early 19th-century botany in his undergraduate education at Edinburgh and Cambridge. It illustrates the significant role of plants on his five-year journey around the world on the HMS Beagle. He spent much of his time collecting plants, along with fossil bones and bird skins. Darwin’s collections of “all plants in flower” from the Galapagos Islands, for example, became the basis for the first flora of that archipelago and provided his strongest evidence for evolution. His field notes on the vegetation of Brazil and Tierra del Fuego reflect his developing thinking on natural processes.

The exhibition also chronicles Darwin’s professional friendships and intellectual exchange with leading botanists of the era, including Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Asa Gray at Harvard University. It highlights his elegant and profound investigations into plant sexuality (the role of flowers, including pollination and co-evolution of plants and their pollinators) and sensitivity (how plants respond to touch, light, gravity, and chemical substances).

   Darwin’s Garden in the Mertz Library runs through July 20, 2008.                      Children’s Adventures with Darwin  

In the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, an interactive exhibition including plants important to the development of the concept of evolution invites hands-on exploration. Darwin the man is brought to life through a re-creation of his research laboratory, an assortment of his working tools, a child-friendly timeline of the highlights of Darwin’s life, and a replica of the Beagle, together with a map of the ship’s five-year voyage to South America and around the world.

Darwin’s Garden in the Children’s Adventure Garden runs through June 29, 2008.

Scientific Symposium

The New York Botanical Garden, in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, will also host a symposium on two evenings during the exhibition. Entitled Darwin: 21st-Century Perspectives, the symposium will feature presentations by scientists, historians, philosophers, and environmentalists — the current thinking by some of the world’s leading Darwin experts. Because Darwin’s theories continue to be a significant force in the world today, the symposium will offer an extraordinary opportunity to hear top scholars and commentators discuss Darwin’s far-reaching impact.

The two-part symposium, moderated by prominent naturalist and author Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D., will be open to the public. It begins the evening of Tuesday, May 6, at the Botanical Garden; the second session, the evening of Thursday, May 8, will be at the American Museum of Natural History.

   Symposium Admission: Tickets still available for the May 6 session,    $10 each.   Free to Members of AMNH and NYBG; registration required.   Please call 800.322.6924 to purchase tickets.                    Evolutionary Tour, Workshops, and More  

From the exhibition, an Evolutionary Tour takes visitors on a scavenger hunt through the Tree of Life among living plants in the Garden’s collections. In the Haupt Conservatory and surrounding outdoor plantings, this approximately 40-minute walking tour highlights significant plants in the evolutionary Tree of Life. It is accompanied by signage and commentary accessible via visitors’ cell phones.

A separate audio tour is also available to guide visitors through their visit of Darwin’s Garden in the Haupt Conservatory and Mertz Library. Weekend programs feature drop-in lectures, workshops, and guided tours. In addition,

performances feature music and poetry from Darwin’s era, much of it heavily influenced by nature.

The Bourke-Sullivan Display House at the Nolen Greenhouses presents a special display of exceptional plants — from the unique to the sometimes bizarre — from the Garden’s diverse botanical collections, showcasing the marvels of plant evolution. Discover the wide range of adaptations that allow plants to survive in every imaginable environment from rain forests to arid deserts.

                               Major Sponsors                   National Endowment for the Humanities:                        great ideas brought to life.                       Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Davidson                   Additional support has been provided by                          Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Nolen                           Ms. Weslie R. Janeway                       Mr. and Mrs. Coleman P. Burke                       Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Cullman                        The Kurt Berliner Foundation                    New York Council for the Humanities  

Exhibitions in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory are made possible by the Estate

of Enid A. Haupt.

Exhibitions in the Mertz Library are made possible by the LuEsther T. Mertz

   Charitable Trust, William D. Rondina and The Carlisle Collection, and                       The Kurt Berliner Foundation.                Spring Season sponsored by MetLife Foundation   

The New York Botanical Garden is a museum of plants located at Bronx River Parkway (Exit 7W) and Fordham Road. During Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure, the Botanical Garden will be open Tuesday through Sunday and Monday federal holidays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, please call 718.817.8700 or visit http://www.nybg.org/.

The best way to enjoy Darwin’s Garden is with the All-Garden Pass, which includes admission to the grounds as well as to the exhibitions, Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, Rock and Native Plant Gardens, Tram Tour, and Evolutionary Tour: $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and students with ID, $7 for children ages 2-12, children under 2 are free. Order tickets for Darwin’s Garden in advance at http://www.nybg.org/.

Admission to the two-part evening symposium, Darwin: 21st-Century Perspectives, on May 6 and 8 is separate. Registration is required; please call 800.322.6924.

A Grounds-Only Pass to the Botanical Garden is also available: $6 for adults, $5 for adult Bronx Residents; $3 for seniors, $2 for students with ID, $1 for children ages 2-12, children under 2 are free. Grounds-only admission is free all day on Wednesdays and from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, April 25-June 15, 4-6 p.m., admission to The New York Botanical Garden is complimentary, courtesy of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Media Contact: George Shakespear, 718.817.8512 or gshakespear@nybg.org

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080425/NYF059AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN8PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

The New York Botanical Garden

CONTACT: George Shakespear, +1-718-817-8512, gshakespear@nybg.org of TheNew York Botanical Garden

Web site: http://www.nybg.org/