“THE WEDGWOODS AND THE DARWINS - THE MARRIAGE OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY” – Conference @ The Wedgwood Museum

THE WEDGWOODS AND THE DARWINS - THE MARRIAGE OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY Sunday 15th November 2009

A symposium to be held at the Wedgwood Museum - Winner of The Art Fund Prize and Museum of the Year 2009

The voyage of the Beagle took Charles Darwin to the other side of the Earth, seeking answers to the mystery of man's origins. Yet so often, his questions would lead him back to Staffordshire, to the land of his grandfathers, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin, and to intense discussions with his Wedgwood kin.

At the end of a year in which Darwin's bicentenary and the 150th anniversary of 'Origins' have caused this modest giant of science to be examined, the Wedgwood Museum-Winner of the Art Fund Prize and Museum of the Year 2009 - presents a symposium illustrating the evolution of the relationship between the Wedgwoods and the Darwins.

Programme

Museum opens 10.00am

Welcome and Coffee 10.15-10.45

10.45 Introduction by Alison Wedgwood

11.00am My favourite Aesculapius Gaye Blake Roberts, Director of the Wedgwood Museum, discusses the beginnings of the relationship between the Wedgwoods and the Darwins and the friendship between Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin.

11.45am "...No blue-printed plates like mine in Staffordshire." Lynn Miller, Wedgwood Museum Information Officer, assesses this statement by Josiah ll with reference to the Darwin waterlily pattern and other botanical prints of the early 19th century.

12.30-2.00 pm Lunch and an opportunity to view the award-winning museum galleries.

2.00pm "Get up your steam and have a ramble in Wales." Museum Archivist, Kevin Salt illustrates Charles Darwin's sorties into Snowdonia from boyhood to old age.

2.45pm "Near and Dear Friends" Deputy Learning and Access Manager, Sharon Gater considers the extent to which Charles Darwin's ideas were influenced by family members.

3.30pm Conclusion by Alan Wedgwood

Tickets cost £25 - Concessions £15 (Students, Seniors and Friends of the Wedgwood Museum). Ticket price includes lunch (please indicate any dietary requirements on the attached booking form).

To book your place at this unique event please forward payment and a completed booking form to:

Darwin Symposium
The Wedgwood Museum,
Wedgwood Drive,
Barlaston,
Stoke-on-Trent,
Staffordshire. ST12 9ER

In light of postal disruptions bookings can also be made via email. Please email bookings@wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk

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Darwin biopic to launch at Toronto Film Festival

From the BBC, July 15^th.

A British drama about scientist Charles Darwin has been selected to launch this year's Toronto Film Festival.

Creation, which stars real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connolly as Darwin and his wife Emma, will open the event on 10 September.

The release of the partly BBC-funded film - out in the UK on 25 September - coincides with the 200th anniversary of the evolution pioneer's birth.

The Toronto Film Festival runs until 29 September in Canada's economic capital.

Directed by Jon Amiel, Creation explores how Darwin came to write his groundbreaking work On the Origins of Species.

The film shows the young scientist grapple with his wife's deep religious convictions and his grief over the death of his young daughter.

Links: http://www.darwin200.org/news/darwin-film.html

Emma Wedgwood and Charles Darwin Play

Sent to me by Mrs Alison Wedgwood:

"Calling all descendants of Darwin and Wedgwood and friends of Staffordshire Dr Alan Wedgwood (head of the ["Etruria"] branch of the Wedgwood family) has sponsored this play for one showing only at the Wedgwood Museum on 14th June, all about Emma Wedgwood and Charles Darwin and based exactly on their letters. He's saw it a few months ago and thought it was brilliant."

“BETTER THAN A DOG” : The relationship of CHARLES and EMMA DARWIN (both grand-children of Josiah Wedgwood) dramatically revealed through their letters and journals.
Triumph and tragedy, humour and heartache all play their part in this extraordinary love story, which reveals the very private life of the very famous scientist and his sociable, devout wife

Reviews:

“Thrilled the audience ….. incredibly moving” Shropshire Star

“a totally different view of Darwin as loving father and adoring husband, with a great sense of humour” – Shrewsbury Chronicle.

Date & Time

June 14th at 4 pm

Tickets £20 including free entrance to the Wedgwood museum and refreshments.

Family Commemorations

Despite the sad loss of the last vestige of family influence at the iconic Wedgwood Pottery earlier this year – covered in this blog passim – 2009 is very much "The Year of Wedgwood". Members of the wider Wedgwood clan will be interested to note that both the Royal Mail and Royal Mint have, in their own way, issued products which commemorate the achievements of two family members.

In January the Royal Mail issued a set of stamps, for general release and in collector's packs, in honour of Charles Darwin born two hundred years ago in 1809. This year also marks the 150^th anniversary of the publication of his ground-breaking and controversial book On the Origin of Species (1859).

A few months later the Royal Mail issued a set of stamps dedicated to titans of the Industrial Revolution – our very own Josiah Wedgwood featured on the 50p stamp. I was pleased to be able to use this stamp to send out the 'thank you' for gifts given to our son Thomas for his Christening. This is surely the only time when consecutive special edition stamps have features a grandson and grandfather? Further, it must be noted that the Royal Mint has issued three different commemorative £2 coins: 1) "Brilliant Uncirculated coin", 2) "silver proof" and 3) "gold proof" for Charles Darwin which must be a similarly rare confluence of events. Don't forget that dear old Charles is also on the reverse of the Bank of England ten pound note so appearing on two currency formats at once must also be quite rare for a non-royal?

Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel, poet and travel writer, and a double descendant of Josiah Wedgwood I, Chair of the UK Poetry Society 2004-2007 and currently Resident Poet at Christ's College Cambridge has been elected to the Post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. Ruth is the first women to hold the 300-year-old poetry post. The appointment is for a term of five years, and chosen through an election open to all "members of Convocation." Her most recent book is Darwin: a life in poems [2009] a publication which marks the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, her great-great grandfather.

Simplified descent:

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) + Sarah Wedgwood (3^rd cousin) =

Susannah Wedgwood + Robert Darwin =

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) + Emma Wedgwood (1^st cousin) =

Sir Horace Darwin (1851-1928) + Hon. Emma Cecilia "Ida" Farrer (1854–1946) =

Emma Nora Darwin (1885-1989) + Sir James Alan Noel Barlow

Hilda Horatia Barlow (b.1919) + John Hunter Padel =

Ruth Sophia Padel (b.1946)

Links:

Ruth Padel – Personal website.

Update:

[26^th May] Ruth Padel has resigned the post to allow a re-election free of controversy. BBC: "Oxford Poet 'Sorry' over Vote Row."

Family Records Centre

The UK Government's Genealogy Portal - http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/default.asp, which I have only just come across, features our very own Charles Darwin in this anniversary year. The Darwin microsite contains a PDF Family Tree showing the complex Wedgwood-Darwin inter-relationship, information on his Darwin ancestors.

There do, at present seem to be some technical difficulties with the page – some links point, inexplicably, to Lewis Carroll related information. I will alert them!

Google Darwin

Search http://www.google.com/ on February 12th and see the Darwin tribute logo.

(Thanks to Dan Mills of Worcester of this one).

Charles Darwin Day!

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) the son of Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood I was born today, two hundred years ago. Readers may find the following links interesting:

Charles Darwin - Wikipedia article

The Wedgwood - Darwin Family - comprehensive article detailing most of the famous descendants of the Wedgwood-Darwin family.

Darwin Online - complete collection of his papers and correspondence.

BBC Darwin - BBC sub0site dedicated to Darwin coverage.

NHM Darwin Exhibition - Natural History Museum Exhibition site.