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

Happy 214th Birthday Charles Darwin!

We have missed wishing Charles Darwin a Happy Birthday at Newquay Zoo and on this blog over the last year or two on February 12th due to all the disruption of Covid.

This year our Schools Go Free in 23 offer, designed to celebrate another birthday, that of our sister zoo Paignton Zoo as part of Wild Planet Trust,  has seen lots of educational visits to Newquay Zoo and Paignton Zoo.

Interestingly we have had a fair number of requests from schools for ‘mini session’ chats at an enclosure (with time for  questions) for Darwin and Evolution (usually Year 6 or KS2). Darwin was no stranger to zoos such as London Zoo, which were a valuable resource of living animals for him to observe as he patiently collected information towards the Origin of Species, Descent of Man and his many other books.

We usually talk a bit about how Darwin’s ideas and methods inform what we do as scientists, zoologists and zoo keepers in zoos today to protect endangered animals.

Whilst our temporary  Darwin Room / Explorer’s classroom display (see birthday post in 2019) is sadly no more, now that our Education building is being replaced by a newer incarnation, it’s good to see that interesting topics like Dinosaurs and Darwin  still ignite the questioning minds of another generation of young scientists and citizens.

Condensing Darwin’s life and the story of how he worked out his theory of Evolution and Natural Selection into 20+ minutes is a challenge, but one which has been helped by the Darwin in Stamps booklet that Sandie Robb at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo and I wrote back in bicentenary year of 2009.

Charles Darwin the young Victorian gentleman of science, before the famous beard was established – image taken from a portrait sketch as a young man in the late 1830s around the time of his marriage to Emma Wedgewood and shortly after his return in 1836 from the Voyage of The HMS Beagle, during which he visited the island of St. Helena. Stamp issue 1982, marking 100 years since his death. An attractive border showing ‘biodiversity’ links this portrait set of Darwin 1982 (Darwin’s death centenary) island issue stamps.

Apparently Darwin features on more stamp issues than any other person who is not a member of a Royal family like Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth II.

I carry a copy of the Darwin in Stamps booklet with me during these school talks to show some of the beautiful stamps about Darwin and his animal discoveries and travels. It’s proved a great summary of his life, travels and  his BIG QUESTIONS about life, especially useful as much of our Darwin materials over the last few months have been packed away with our fossils in a shipping container during our zoo classroom move / rebuild.

I found about 15 to 20 unclaimed copies of this publication during the rebuild. This means  for a limited period I will be able to offer again a class library copy free to a few more visiting schools studying this fascinating topic.

So happy birthday Charles Darwin for the 12th of February today – celebrated all over the world – and throughout this centenary year to our Wild Planet Trust sister zoo, Paignton Zoo, founded by Herbert Whitley in 1923. I’m sure the two men would have had lots of animal observations in common to talk about, especially  their shared interest in pigeon breeds and breeding.

Darwin Day Wikipedia entry

International Darwin Day website

Blog posted by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo Education Department, Cornwall, UK, 12 February 2023. All views my own.

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

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.

New UK mammal biodiversity stamps launched!

Hopefully you have all seen the news release about Royal Mail’s new UK Biodiversity stamps (and you’ll see them on your post). Surely Charles Darwin as a backyard biologist would approve, especailly in 2010 Year of Biodiversity,  of the beautiful new photographic stamps about rare British mammals. You can see them on the Royal mail website or at the execllent zoo blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com:80/2010/04/mammal-stamps-in-uk.html 

Stephen Woollard and Sandie Robb at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo commented: “We are particularly pleased to see the Scottish wildcat as one of the featured animals and the launch of this stamp took place at our RZSS Highland Wildlife Park, as we are one of the partners of the Cairngorm Wildcat Project.”

See these links: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8617325.stm

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8616599.stm

 http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=118600813&mediaId=119300768

If only Darwin had known about … DNA and Gregor Mendel.

Royal Mail's Millennium stamp issue featured this striking DNA stamp. If only Darwin had known about … DNA. A useful website for teachers is a daily email from History.com  THIS DAY IN HISTORY http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

February 28: General Interest 1953 : Watson and Crick discover chemical structure of DNA On this day in 1953, Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. Though DNA–short for deoxyribonucleic acid–was discovered in 1869, its crucial role in determining genetic inheritance wasn’t demonstrated until 1943. In the early 1950s, Watson and Crick were only two of many scientists working on figuring out the structure of DNA. California chemist Linus Pauling suggested an incorrect model at the beginning of 1953, prompting Watson and Crick to try and beat Pauling at his own game.  On the morning of February 28, they determined that the structure of DNA was a double-helix polymer, or a spiral of two DNA strands, each containing a long chain of monomer nucleotides, wound around each other. According to their findings, DNA replicated itself by separating into individual strands, each of which became the template for a new double helix. In his best-selling book, The Double Helix (1968), Watson later claimed that Crick announced the discovery by walking into the nearby Eagle Pub and blurting out that “we had found the secret of life.” The truth wasn’t that far off, as Watson and Crick had solved a fundamental mystery of science–how it was possible for genetic instructions to be held inside organisms and passed from generation to generation. Watson and Crick’s solution was formally announced on April 25, 1953, following its publication in that month’s issue of Nature magazine. The article revolutionized the study of biology and medicine. Among the developments that followed directly from it were pre-natal screening for disease genes; genetically engineered foods; the ability to identify human remains; the rational design of treatments for diseases such as AIDS; and the accurate testing of physical evidence in order to convict or exonerate criminals. Crick and Watson later had a falling-out over Watson’s book, which Crick felt misrepresented their collaboration and betrayed their friendship. A larger controversy arose over the use Watson and Crick made of research done by another DNA researcher, Rosalind Franklin, whose colleague Maurice Wilkins showed her X-ray photographic work to Watson just before he and Crick made their famous discovery. When Crick and Watson won the Nobel Prize in 1962, they shared it with Wilkins. Franklin, who died in 1958 of ovarian cancer and was thus ineligible for the award, never learned of the role her photos played in the historic scientific breakthrough. ———————————————————————————- Gregor Mendel and his famous smooth and wrinkled pea plant experiments on inheritance are commemorated on this German stamp. If only Darwin and he had met ... And if only Darwin had met or read properly the work of Gregor Mendel

Charles Darwin and 2010 International Year of Biodiversity

Darwin's microscope (still to be seen at Down House) used on the Beagle around the world and to look at backyard biodiversity from his back garden and the Sand walk, Falklands commemorative stamp 1982.

Following on from 2009’s Charles Darwin’s bicentenary Darwin 200, this year has been dubbed 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. You can find out more about IYBD at www.biodiversityislife.net – stamp issues in Britain and around the world will mark the event. It also coincides with British Association’s National Science and Engineering Week events from 12 to 21 March 2010 www.nsew.org.uk . Both websites have good event listings and lots of teaching ideas and resources. Many IYBD events are planned in zoos and other venues across the UK. There is encouragement for backyard biologists or biodiversity Our Darwin stamp book partners RZSS Edinburgh Zoo are very busy with events  as well as hosting the IUCN secretariat www.iucn.org. IUCN the International Union for Conservation of Nature prepare the IUCN Red Data List www.iucnredlist.org of how rare some of the species that Darwin saw on his Voyage of the Beagle have become .

Darwin’s work on coral reefs, islands and how animals become specialised, adapted  and eventaully become separate species on islands are very important today for conserving and protecting biodiversity hotspots like the Philippines.

HMS Beagle and Darwin's work on coral reef islands celebrated in this fabulous First Day Cover, 1981 Cocos And Keeling Island stamps

Our Philippines Trail at the zoo is mentioned on the IYBD and  half term  and National Science Week activities.  We have used many Philippines stamps from the zoo and personal collections to illustrate more about these amazing islands. Stamps show the flags, cultural dances, history, produce and wildlife. Two of the most beautiful stamp sets used are WWF stamps of our Warty pigs  (Red Data List Wild status: Critically endangered) and Philippine Spotted deer (Red Data List Wild status: Endangered)

WWF Filipinas Philippines stamps showing the rarest pigs in the world (Visayan Warty pig) and rarest deer (Philippine Spotted deer) in the world, here at Newquay Zoo as part of a conservation breeding programme between the Philippines, zoos and other organisations around the world.

Endangered Mammals stamps

13 April 2010  The Royal Mail will issue a special edition of stamps for 2010 Year of Biodiversity. The latest set in the Action for Species series shows images of mammals and will feature 10 UK endangered species for which conservation action plans are in place. Look on the Royal Mail website in the next few weeks for pictures of these beautiful new stamps – some more backyard biodiversity. 

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/jump1?catId=32200669&mediaId=32300674

More projects like this can be found at wild about gardening, the new website www.wildaboutgardens.org

Darwin’s birthday 12 February, stamps, teasets, the BBC’s A History of the World in 100 Objects and the new Royal Mail stamps for 2010

Charles Darwin the young Victorian gentleman of science, before the famous beard was established - image taken from a portrait sketch as a young man in the late 1830s around the time of his marriage to Emma Wedgewood and shortly after his return in 1836 from the Voyage of The HMS Beagle, during which he visited the island of St. Helena. Stamp issue 1982, marking 100 years since his death. An attractive border showing 'biodiversity' links this portrait set of Darwin linked 1982 island issue stamps.

“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Charles Darwin …”  Maybe not. Although this tune was late Victorian, it was composed  after Darwin’s death , whilst  the words emerged in the early 20th century. However it’s a chance for a school assembly theme, craft idea or a beautifully designed stamp page: Charles Darwin’s birthday is coming up on Friday 12 February 2010. This is  celebrated each year in Shrewsbury (his birthplace) and in  many unusual ways around the world. Many unusual events are registered at www.darwinday.org  and you can find out more about Darwin on our Blogroll links.  

2010 will see not only the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity (biodiversity being now under threat in  many of the areas Darwin visited) but also the 150th anniversary of the famous Oxford ‘Evolution’ and ‘Creation’  debate between the Victorian church (in the church corner: Bishop Wilberforce) and Victorian Science (in the ‘red in tooth and claw’ corner, not Tennyson but Darwin’s ‘bulldog’ T.H. Huxley). Darwin was, by nature, quite a shy man and wisely working elsewhere! 

The Charles Darwin: A Celebration in Stamps is now published. It is aimed at schools and a copy will be available free to schools on request (while stocks last) but it is also of general interest and can be purchased for £6 (plus p&p). Our Darwin stamp book is available from Sandie Robb at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo or from Mark Norris at Newquay Zoo – see blog entry 25th Nov 2009 for details. 

Charles Darwin the old Victorian gentleman of science, after the famous beard was long established and Darwin was nearing his death- the famous image based on the photograph portrait by pioneer Victorian lady photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Stamp issue 1982, marking 100 years since his death. Darwin passed Mauritius on his Beagle voyage home. Again an attractive border showing 'biodiversity' links this portrait set of Darwin linked island 1982 stamps.

We’d nominate this 1982 stamp series (shown opposite) to join the BBC Radio 4’s series A History of the World in 100 Objects. This  has a fine section on Victorian objects submitted by museums around the country, individuals and an ‘Early Victorian Tea Set’  (for serving early Victorian tea). The Darwin link? The tea set was  designed by Wedgewood, Darwin’s relation by marriage to his cousin Emma Wedgewood. You can see the tea objects in a fabulous new digital museum online at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/FWYgWOCSSpKKuF3pctC6tA  There are  plenty more  Victorian objects at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/?tag=63&tagname=The%20Victorians&/#/culture/63 with lots of other learning resources and even a CBBC website game called Relic : Guardians of the Museum http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/   There are hundreds of fabulous objects on this BBC / British Museum site. Our other zoo blog World War Zoo gardens http://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com has nominated a child’s ‘wartime handmade sliding puzzle’ toy featured from the 1940s but which could easily have come from the 1840s and the Darwin children’s  nursery.   They still make such sliding toys in plastic and still make tea sets much like the early Victorians – some objects do not change design or purpose very quickly, others rapidly become obsolete or extinct. 

Finally, it’s 175 years this year since Darwin visited the Galapagos islands in 1835.  Whilst there are no Darwin stamps for  2010 from the Royal Mail (2009 saw a fine ‘jigsaw’ set for Darwin’s bicentenary),  we need time to catch up with all the Darwin 200 bicentenary issue stamps and Galapagos visit anniversary from elsewhere around the world! There are  plenty of new thematic or commemorative releases by the Royal Mail. These  include Children’s literature, the Royal Society, Railways, Mammals and others which may feature Victorian subjects, science or animals. Unusually the centenary of Florence Nightingale’s death in 2010 is not obviously commemorated (but there are Florence Nightingale Royal Mail issues from the past). For more stamp collecting information, to inspire you to set up a stamp club in school or collect yourself  http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=32300678&mediaId=32600692 

New Releases 2010 http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/jump1?catId=32200669&mediaId=32300674  

7th January – Classic Album Covers – 
26th January – Smilers 2010  –
2nd February – Girl Guiding UK –
25th February – The Royal Society
11th March – Battersea Dogs & Cats
13th April – Mammals (Action for Species 4)
6th & 8th May – London 2010 Festival of Stamps
13th May – Britain Alone
*15th June – House of Stuarts
27th July – The London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games
19th August – Musicals
16th September – Great British Railways
*12th October – Children’s Books
2nd November – Christmas
*New issue date for this Special Stamp Issue 

Happy stamp collecting! Happy Darwin’s birthday on the 12th!

Care for the rare – What connects Charles Darwin, postage stamps, evolution, conservation, zoos and extinction and rarity value?

Charles Darwin first day cover Falklands 1982

 

Last week from Stanley Gibbons I received an inviting offer to invest in a very, very rare Victorian stamp. 

Here at Newquay Zoo www.newquayzoo.org.uk  and my colleagues at Edinburgh Zoo www.edinburghzoo.org,  we are very used to working with often very, very rare animals. The kind that feature  on the IUCN Red Data list www.iucnredlist.org of endangered animals.  If we do our work well, they will became less rare and more common (or at least less endangered and better protected). 

Charles Darwin on his travels around the world and his visits to early zoos like London Zoo ZSL saw some now exceptionally rare animals, even some that are now extinct.  The Warrah or Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis, pictured above) is one such recently extinct animal.  So no chance of Sandie Robb (co-compiler of Charles Darwin: A Celebration in Stamps) seeing one on her recent Falklands expedition twinning Falklands schools with ones in Scotland. http://rzssfalklands.wordpress.com and www.rzss.org.uk/education/school/falkland_islands_project.html 

Darwin discovered dinosaur bones for other long extinct creatures in South America, being an early palaeontologist and geologist. He even stopped passed Mauritius on his route home on the HMS Beagle, narrowly missing seeing the Dodo by a century or two. 

 

 

 

Breeding rare animals in a well-managed conservation programme is obviously important and you can find more about this on our zoo websites, along with our networks www.biaza.org.uk, www.eaza.net and www.waza.org .  

I’m  not sure if Stanley Gibbons or collectors and investors in very rare stamps would be very impressed if we suddenly produced lots more of a rare stamp like the one we were offered by their investment site. They might be a bit suspicious of forgery. 

  

” Today’s Top Tip – An Undervalued Rarity received from marketing@stanleygibbons.co.uk 10th January 2009 

“One of the most important stamps from the British Empire. Our Philatelic Director produced the description of this item. As it is a bit technical in nature, I have simply highlighted in “bold” the important aspects influencing its investment quality to help you understand why it is so special. 

NEW ZEALAND 1855 SG: 3b–StockCode–P09004882 

1855 (Dec) 1d orange on white paper, watermark large star, imperforate with large margins and brilliant colour, part original gum.Plated as position 5 on the sheet, the centre stamp from the reconstructed strip of 3 (position 4-6) assembled by H. Gordon Kaye (CRL 12/11/91, lots 65-67), and much the finest of the three.

Slight gum crease at foot but very fine appearance and excessively rare. 

This first Richardson printing, using paper supplied from London, represents the initial production of postage stamps in New Zealand. A very important and desirable stamp. Stamp comes with a British Philatelic Association certificate (1990).(catalogue value: £32,000) 

Price: £24,000   This stamp is the finest of the three in existence …”      

New Zealand 1855 (Dec) 1d orange on white paper a very very rare stamp from the Stanley Gibbons website - probably the closest you'll ever come to seeing one!

and so the email temptingly went on. Not having £32,000 or even £24,000 spare, I didn’t take Stanley Gibbons up on their kind offer. Our zoo directors might wonder where their zoo budgets had gone. 

Island life

Stamps from small islands like the animals from small islands tend to be at risk of becoming rare because of the very few produced or surviving, compared to the thousands of everyday definitive (penny and pound) postage stamps used in Britain each year for example. Many of our rarest creatures in zoos today are from islands. Many of the extinction lists feature island species quite heavily.

Darwin noticed that island life tends to create perfect conditions for speciation and evolution of certain features that help you survive or adapt to each unique environment, often favouring certain natural individual variations (height, speed, bill shape etc) within any animal or plant population.

 

Even more like evolution, it is often the tiniest variations, tiny mistakes or errors (famously missing colours or printing pictures of airplanes upside down) that escape the printers’ censorious eyes and the ‘error’ stamps become worth a fortune.  

There are many stories about rare stamps or errors that we will share with you on the blog, even the odd Victorian murder by crazed collectors to gain the only copy of a stamp known to survive. Some animal collectors hoard rare animals such as the Spix’s Macaw until they have the last few left. Other people illegally collect rare bird’s eggs.  Stamp collecting  is much less destructive or murderous than that. 

 

You don’t have to bankrupt your school, classroom or own budget to collect some inspiring and beautiful stamps on almost any thematic subject you can think of to illustrate your teaching and brighten your day !

 

Stamps can easily be obtained from dealers, auction sites like E-Bay, kindly collectors, friends or lucky charity / junk shop finds.  Look at the blogroll for more links.

 

If you do have a spare £24,000 or £32,000 and don’t want to spend it on beautiful rare stamps, both Edinburgh Zoo and Newquay Zoo are conservation charities. We’ve lots of ideas on what to do with the money. You could buy and protect a lot of rainforest habitat for that sort of money through the World Land Trust!

 

Alternatively, you could buy all several hundred  first edition copies of Charles Darwin: A Celebration in Stamps  (for price and postage, see Sandie’s comments on the comments page). Even better, we  will send one copy free to any UK primary school that requests one, thanks to a legacy from Beryl Rennie, a Scottish stamp collector to encourage schools and youth stamp work.   

 

Teaching Tips  – Extinction and Conservation

It is important to distinguish what different causes made animals disappear such as dodos, dinosaurs and more recently extinct animals such as the Falklands Wolf  or Dusky Seaside Sparrow. This can create lots of questions in class to investigate:

• Was this a natural extinction such as the dinosaurs? 
• Was it unnatural and influenced by man such as the Dodo or Falklands Wolf?
• What causes animals to become extinct?
• What causes animals to become endangered?
• What rare or endangered animals do we have in Britain?
• What can zoos, conservation  and nature organisations do to help prevent extinction in the future?

We look forward to hearing from you via the blog about ways that you have used the Darwin book or stamps in your classroom or craftroom.

 

  

 

Postman (or woman) in the family tree?

The recent  edition of Your Family Tree magazine NO. 85 had a fabulous article on tracing postmen and Post Office links in your family tree http://www.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk/ with some fascinating facts about how the postal service developed throughout the Victorian period and how many of us are likely to have postmen or women in the family some time in the past. lots of excellent links and ideas

Lots of this (and how to search Local History records, census returns etc.) would be very useful in the classroom especailly covering local history for the primary curriculum.  

Lark Rise to Candleford, the trilogy of books based on her life by Flora Thompson featured the footslogging approach to being a country postman or postwoman. The series is now out on DVD, a good way of giving an insight into the hard work involved in an everyday Victorian invention, the penny postal system.