Quinnipiac/Eastern History of Psychology, Summer 2015: Olivia and Amelia July 12, 2015

(I) After seeing Charles Darwin's house and learning more about his life outside of his studies, we thought it would be interesting to dig deeper into some of the facts and really see how his focus on work affected his family life. In the audio tour of his house we learned that he and his family moved from London to the Down House in Kent in 1842. Darwin had a very large family. Marrying his cousin Emma in 1838, their family started to grow and the two had nine children together.

Darwin’s work soon started to have an impact on his health and family life, and Darwin moved out of London and into the Down House. The move allowed Darwin to focus solely on a daily schedule revolving around his work and research. Only having two children at the time, their family continued to grow as time went on at the Down House. Aside from his own illness, which continued to worsen, many of Darwin’s children suffered from serious illnesses as well. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies quotes Darwin once saying “my dread is hereditary ill-heath. Even death is better for them” (1). This shows that he recognized how painful it was for his children to suffer from their illnesses and knew first hand how heavily this could affect ones life. Deeply saddened by the lost of two of his children, he pushed forward on his research. By the early 1850s his remaining children were growing up amidst his focus on barnacles. By 1851, Darwin had published a few studies on barnacles in two different publications. His results showed “that some female {barnacles} had tiny degenerate males clinging to them” which sparked his interest in the evolution of diverting male and female forms from an original “hermaphrodite creature” (Britannica 1).

Through his important findings and strong focus on work, his children were growing up quickly. The Oxford dictionary notes that one of his children, assuming that all fathers were focused on the same career path as Darwin, asked “but where does he do his barnacles?” (1). Working exclusively on barnacles throughout the years, his children soon started to believe this is what all fathers did; they grew up surrounded by Darwin’s work on barnacles. Although his work took much of his time away from his children, his family stayed strong a continued to support him, especially helping him push through his worsening health.

(II) Charles Darwin’s, “On the Origin of Species” was first published on November 24, 1859. This was Darwin’s most famous and accredited book by discussing the long and difficult research he had to do to properly support his evolution theory (Benjamin, 2014).

(III) Photo of Charles Darwin’s house, and one of the back gardens