The Beagle Has Landed! Happy Darwin Day 2024 Darwin’s 215th Birthday

Charles Darwin as a young Victorian gentleman of science, during Voyage of The HMS Beagle, during which he visited the island of St. Helena 1982 Stamp issue 1982. 

It’s Darwin Day today, an international celebration of Darwin’s travels, life  and research.

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin, 215 years young …

What, we ask visiting Year 6 groups of 10 to 11 year olds , is the name of the most famous ship or boat and voyage in the world?

or if its a local school “What is the most famous boat or ship to have sailed into Cornish waters and Falmouth harbour?”  

We get an interesting range of answers to this most famous or important voyage. “Titanic” is a very common answer!  The Apollo mission “Eagle has Landed” is another curious one.

The correct version should of course be “The Beagle Has Landed”! (“One small step for a seasick man, one giant leap for mankind …”)

Darwin / Inheritance and Evolution is still a popular science curriculum topic or theme for Year 6 / Junior Primary visits to the zoo, and it’s especially interesting  with our local  Southwest Britain / Cornish  connections to Darwin and his famous voyage.

Some of the HMS Beagle’s  crew were from the Plymouth  (still a ‘grey port’ or Royal Navy port) and Cornwall area.

He started his HMS Beagle voyage in Plymouth in 1831 and arrived home on October 1836 in Falmouth.

Plaque marking spot of Darwin’s landfall from HMS Beagle voyage, October 2 1836 in Falmouth and his departure home through Cornwall and Devon back to Shrewsbury by coach.

This is still marked in Falmouth with the 2009 ‘landfall’ plaque from the Darwin 200 celebrations. One object we mention to school groups or children to look out for when shopping or visiting in Falmouth.

Limited Edition Print. 'Beagle in the Bay, Falmouth' by Cornish Artist John Dyer. Cornwall Art Gallery Print

Exciting to think that the tiny little HMS Beagle once docked in Falmouth (now home to the many boats of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall) and Darwin travelled home through the wild landscapes of Cornwall.

In my Darwin, Inheritance and Evolution year 6 talks last week at the zoo, I used as a ‘memory prompt’ one of my last few copies of the stamp book that Sandie Robb at RZSS and I put together back in Darwin 200 year in 2009. We tend to future focus our talk to think about how Darwin’s ideas are useful to zoo keepers today working in conservation.

I am impressed by the amount of knowledge primary children have ‘soaked up’ about polar explorers like Shackleton or Scott, fossil hunters like Mary Anning  or travelling scientists like Darwin. The biographical approach of the life story or adventures seems to work well and there are now many colourful children’s books out there for home education or classroom projects.

Darwin used the chance to study ‘live’ animal behaviour in animal collections in scientific zoos like ZSL London Zoo and the ‘dead zoo’ of museums extensively in his research. We mention this to school groups visiting today are following that tradition and wonder what Darwin would make of a modern zoo if he returned to wander around Edinburgh Zoo, or Newquay Zoo or London Zoo today.

Always interesting, the questions that we are asked about Darwin and animals and zoos by groups at the end of a mini-session chat over by an animal enclosure!

Charles Darwin the old Victorian gentleman of science, Mauritius –  Darwin linked island 1982 stamps.

Best wishes for Darwin Day however you celebrate  Darwin’s life, travels and writing … 

RZSS Edinburgh Zoo https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/education/ 

Newquay Zoo https://www.newquayzoo.org.uk/wild-learning/

**** February 2024 – I have a last few couple of copies of the Darwin stamp book available post free to schools or other zoos (UK only) – contact me if interested by email via our website or our Newquay Zoo Education webpage. ****

Blog posted by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo Education Department on 12 February 2024

Beautiful Darwin Initiative 2017 Jersey Zoo stamps

 

 

https://darwininitiativeuk.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/darwin-initiatives-25th-anniversary-celebrated-on-jersey-stamps/

Heading home aboard HMS Beagle 180 years ago

Charles Darwin first day cover Falklands 1982

180 years ago a 26 year old young Englishman prepares for the final part of his journey home on one of the most impressive round the world “gap years” in history.

August 17 1836 aboard HMS Beagle, a young Charles Darwin prepares to  leave South America for the last time. Along with the Captain Fitzroy and crew of HMS Beagle, they were  heading home for the first time after 5 years away.

He arrived in Falmouth harbour in Cornwall on HMS Beagle on October 2 1836.

Plaque marking spot of Darwin’s landfall from HMS Beagle voyage, Oct 2 1836 in Falmouth and his departure home by coach. Erected during the Darwin Bicentenary 2009.

Unlike Fitzroy and the Royal Navy crew of HMS Beagle, the often seasick Darwin would never go to sea or leave Britain again.

Read more of our past blogposts by Sandie Robb at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo and Mark Norris at Newquay Zoo for more about Darwin’s life and work, his life commemorated in postage stamps, the 200th Birthday celebrations in 2009, Alfred Russel Wallace, using stamps in schools or zoos as a teaching resource and celebrating many things Victorian!

Blog posted by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo – Darwin Stamp Zoo blog, 17 August 2016

New dinosaur stamp finds for the Darwin blog

These are some beautifully stylish and  ‘very 1960s’ Polish dinosaur stamps to share with you all.

Today I have been teaching ‘dinosaurs’ and extinction at Newquay Zoo and showing dinosaur and Darwin stuff to Foundation / Year 1 dinosaur ‘experts’ from a local primary school.

I asked them what extinct means and a small boy put his hand up and dramatically said “DEAD!” to which another girl emphatically added “They’ve ALL DIED!!!!”

More ‘dino’ teaching ideas to follow …

Polska (Polish) dinosaur stamp Brontosaurus 1965

 

 

175th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s visit to Australia

As Mark has mentioned in the previous post, this year marks a 175th anniversary of Darwin’s return later in the year but on the 12th January 1836 he landed in Sydney Cove, Australia.

The following cover was issued on 1st April 1986 which is was the 150th anniversary of the visit to Cocos(Keeling) Islands. These islands are an Australian territory and lie in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island. They consist of two atolls and other coral islands. An atoll is an island of coral around a lagoon.

Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls from his observations. They started as an ocean volcano and through gradual subsidence, the island sinks but the surrounding coral reef grows upwards, becoming a barrier reef island.  Over time, the subsidence takes the old volcano below ocean level and only the barrier reef remains. It is then termed an atoll.

Darwin was also fascinated by the platypus. At first he thought the platypus was so unusual, along with some of the other Australian animals that if there was a creator then it must be two different creators to make such absurd animals!

Of course later, it all fitted into his theory that the species had evolved from primitive mammals which still had many reptilian characteristics.

The platypus is a monotreme. These are mammals but instead of giving birth to live young they lay eggs. They are not primitive mammals because they have evolved over time. Mammals have evolved from reptiles. Monotremes probably branched off at an early stage and still have some reptilian features. There are 3 species of monotreme – duck billed platypus; short nosed echidna and long nosed echidna.

I also have this 1999 Australian 5c coin in my collection with echidna pictured on it. The echidna along with many australian animals have appeared on their coinage.

And please spare a thought for the floods in Australia at present.

Famous footsteps, incredible journeys: Happy New Darwin Anniversary Year 2011 – 175 years on, and a bit more of our Victorian Time Safari …

It’s 175 years this year since Charles Darwin returned to Britain at the end of his five-year voyage, just as the Victorian period was beginning. He had spent his last Christmas 1835 away from home and was heading back in HMS Beagle for the final part of his epic voyage of discovery. He still had much of Australia, New Zealand, Keeling Islands, Mauritius, Cape Town in South Africa, St. Helena, Ascension Island and Brazil (again) to visit before reaching Britain. Many of these countries, especially the islands, mark the anniversary of his famous visit with postage stamps.

By October 2nd, 1836 he would be back on land in Falmouth and heading home by mail coach

Plaque marking spot of Darwin's landfall from HMS Beagle voyage, Oct 2 1836 in Falmouth and his departure home by coach.

A plaque set up by Falmouth Town Council and Falmouth Art Gallery marks the point where he made landfall in Falmouth and waited for the mail coach home. Within a year, a new Queen would be on the throne and a new era of scientific, agricultural and technological revolution begun. Lots of developments had happened in technology and society whilst he had been away, not least the beginnings of railway mania, so that the very coach he travelled on was soon to become obsolete as public transport within his lifetime.

The penny post and Penny Black stamp were only a few years aways in 1840. By the time he died in 1882, telegraph communication was widespread and telephones in their infancy. The first petrol engine vehicles were in development. Cinema experiments were beginning. Iron and steam had replaced wood and sail in modern ships. Darwin lived through an amazing century, which set the pace for the developments since.

There’s a 2009 news story and photos about the Darwin’s landfall plaque in Falmouth  http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/news/falmouth/Plaque-marks-Darwin-landfall/article-1636415-detail/article.html

Sadly since this was put up, Brian Stewart the curator of Falmouth Art Gallery has sadly died in December 2010, much missed by  the Newquay Zoo staff with whom he worked extensively on Darwin 200 activities. Many tributes can be read to his work in the Falmouth Packet newspaper. Newquay Zoo staff were already planning a follow-up to Darwin 200 based around nonsense poet and animal painter Edward Lear’s bicentenary in May 2012.    

Darwin is not the only eminent Victorian to have his landing-place marked in Cornwall. We’ve included it as part of our Victorian Time Safari, looking at the legacy of Darwin’s Victorian times around us. What can you see in your village, town or city from Victorian times?

We spotted this unusual footprint when arriving by boat ferry at St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, that magical castle in the sea that Darwin would have passed on his route into Falmouth just up the coast.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert 's royal visit marked by bronze plaque near her 'footstep' at St. Michaels' Mount, Cornwall (Photo: Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo)

Nearby, Truro station has all the ornate ironwork of a Victorian station still, including its VR Victorian post box. Nearby, Truro station has all the ornate ironwork of a Victorian station still, including its VR Victorian post box. On a recent Dublin trip, we saw a Victorian explorer commemorated not in stamps but in a lifesize bronze statue. What Victorain memorials or  inventions can you find in your area?

Ornate Victorian ironwork, Truro rail station, Cornwall, 2010Ornate decorative Victorian ironwork, Truro rail station, Cornwall, 2010Victorian statue of explorer / surgeon TH Parke from Stanley's expeditions in Africa, outside Dublin Natural History Museum

Royal Mail Teacher’s Post

Sandie Robb appears in the Autumn issue of Royal Mail’s Teacher’s Post magazine featuring the Darwin 200 book.

You can download a pdf version of the magazine at:

http://www.teacherspost.co.uk/

Teachers can contact Royal Mail direct for free copies of the book while stocks last.

Happy 225th birthday, US postal system 26 July 1775

Taken / Reposted from the http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Welcome to the THIS DAY IN HISTORY daily email from History.com

 July 26 1775 : U.S. postal system established

On this day in 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Franklin (1706-1790) put in place the foundation for many aspects of today’s mail system. During early colonial times in the 1600s, few American colonists needed to send mail to each other; it was more likely that their correspondence was with letter writers in Britain. Mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns.

 In 1753, Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight. In 1774, the British fired Franklin from his postmaster job because of his revolutionary activities.

However, the following year, he was appointed postmaster general of the United Colonies by the Continental Congress. Franklin held the job until late in 1776, when he was sent to France as a diplomat. He left a vastly improved mail system, with routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood, a former Massachusetts congressman, as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789. At the time, there were approximately 75 post offices in the country.

Today, the United States has over 40,000 post offices and the postal service delivers 212 billion pieces of mail each year to over 144 million homes and businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The postal service is the nation’s largest civilian employer, with over 700,000 career workers, who handle more than 44 percent of the world’s cards and letters. The postal service is a not-for-profit, self-supporting agency that covers its expenses through postage (stamp use in the United States started in 1847) and related products. The postal service gets the mail delivered, rain or shine, using everything from planes to mules. However, it’s not cheap: The U.S. Postal Service says that when fuel costs go up by just one penny, its own costs rise by $8 million.

 American Revolution  1775 : Congress establishes U.S. Post Office

View original post at http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-establishes-us-post-office

Wallace – the alternative Darwin – gets a postage stamp or two at last!!

Alfred Russel Wallace on postage stamps at last! http://wallacefund.info/first-ever-postage-stamps-featuring-alfred-russel-wallace-are-published

George Beccaloni left a very excited message on the Alfred Russel Wallace website  about the 2009 issue by Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (in Africa) of Wallace stamps – at last!

You might have read earlier Sandie’s jubilant blog entry about the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society postage stamps from the Royal Mail featuring Wallace  http://http://royalsociety.org/Royal-Society-350th-anniversary-stamps/ 

Interesting to compare the two different designs!

The centenary of Wallace’s death in 1913 is due soon in 2013 and the Wallace Fund website blog has more details about how this is being marked around the world. There is also a short biography of this amazing man and many links.

These very Darwin style portrait and dinosaur stamps compare well with some of the Darwin 200 and other anniversary issues shown in our Charles Darwin: A Life In Stamps book, published in 2009. Copies are still available to schools (free) and collectors (small charge, see earlier blog).  The stamps should,  as George notes,   appeal to dinosaur stamp collectors as much as Darwin realted stamp collectors.  

 http://wallacefund.info/first-ever-postage-stamps-featuring-alfred-russel-wallace-are-published

His book The Malay Archipeligo has never been out of print since its publication, much like Darwin’s Voyage of The Beagle, another classic of  Victorian travel writing.

Wallace’s travels took him across Indonesia including to Papua New Guinea where our Black Tree Monitors are from and Sulawesi, an Indonesian island,  home to Sulawesi Macaque monkeys that are now critically endangered – you can see our group at Newquay Zoo through our webcam http://www.newquayzoo.org.uk/conservation/sulawesi-crested-black-macaques.htm, part of our support for Selamatkan Yaki (Protect The Macaque! in Bahasan Indonesian).

We’ll keep you posted on celebartions for Wallace 2013, Darwin 2011 and Edward Lear 2012 on the blog – watch this space.

Artistic Scrapbooking Stamp Pages

I made a scrapbook all about Madagascar and used photos, stamps, and other materials to make up the pages.

Look how I have used the tails of the ring tailed lemur in the following example:

Try your own designs.

About Madagascar and how it came to have unique animals not found anywhere else –

The reason is because of evolution by natural selection. When Madagascar became separated from Africa, the island conditions were very different from the mainland. The animals and plants evolved according to their new circumstances and became new species over millions of years. And because Madagascar is an island the new species are not found anywhere else.

Sandie Robb, RZSS