By now, few people will be unaware that 2009 sees the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, which is being marked with a whole year of events celebrating the impact that Darwin’s approach to the understanding of nature continues to have on our lives: his observations – that every living thing is related and belongs to one big family – placed humans firmly within the natural world.
This spring, Penlee House is honouring Darwin’s legacy through an exhibition entiled ‘Wild Cornwall’, looking at the flora and fauna of our county through the eyes of artists, photographers, scientists and taxidermists.
‘Wild Cornwall’ includes some glorious images of the Cornish landscape by various painters, including Newlyn School and Lamorna artists, alongside fascinating items from Penlee House Gallery & Museum’s original collections dating back to the early days of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, founded in 1839. Several of the specimens have been restored specially for the exhibition and will be on show for the first time for decades.
Naturalist Paul Semmens has worked with Penlee House to ensure that the exhibition offers an insight into the diverse range of species resident in west Cornwall and their habitats, and the effect of environmental changes on the natural world. The exhibition will include a computer slide-show of his photographs of insects, animals and plants found in this area, and there will also be a selection of photographs by renowned underwater photographer Mark Webster, featuring some of the sealife off the Cornish coast (on loan from Falmouth Art Gallery).
Wild Cornwall has been organised in partnership with Falmouth Art Gallery and Newquay Zoo, and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Falmouth harbour was the site of the Beagle’s first British landfall after five years spent circumnavigating the globe as host to Darwin’s ground breaking scientific expedition: it arrived there on 2 October 1836. Fittingly, therefore, Falmouth Art Gallery are holding a series of exhibitions throughout Darwin200 exploring a variety of related themes, and has worked with Penlee House in the presentation of this show.
