Charles Darwin Autograph.

DARWIN, Charles.

$14,000.00

Item Number: 147292

Rare autograph from Charles Darwin, boldly signed, “Charles Darwin, Down, Kent, March 17th 1880.” Matted and framed with a portrait of Darwin. In fine condition. The entire piece measures 12.25 inches by 19 inches. A remarkable presentation.

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors and, in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favored competing explanations and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.