>>DAVID HARVEY: It's obvious where the Darwin exhibition begins because the crowd of children
will be looking at a pair of Galapagos tortoises, which are live, which are
moving around in their ample enclosure and announcing the excitement of the exhibition.
>>CHRIS RAXWORTHY: People just love coming through it. They love reading the
information. They find Charles Darwin's life fascinating, and they find so many
objects and the interactives we have in here really enjoyable to look and study.
So, it's both that wonderful mix of very strong educational component, but also
terribly entertaining at the same time.
>>RO KINZLER: The Darwin exhibition is a tremendous
platform for reaching out to the key audiences for the Museum—in particular,
schools, school groups and educators. We were surprised, in fact, by the numbers
of school groups who are attending and have attended the Darwin exhibition. Far
in excess of what we anticipated.
>>NILES ELDREDGE: We have the crown jewels of Darwiniana here. His
personal notebooks, his hammer, his knickknacks that he had around the house, his manuscripts.
>>NARRATOR: Darwin organized by the American Museum of Natural History is
the most in-depth exhibition ever mounted on this highly original
naturalist and his theory of evolution by natural selection.
The exhibition is divided into six distinct areas. The very first object we see as we enter the
gallery is Darwin's own magnifying glass, showing us that by using simple tools we
can learn so much about nature. Indeed, there are magnifying glasses on objects
throughout the exhibition, which children, in particular, enjoy immensely. The second
section—The World Before Darwin—puts his findings into context. A large antique
display case symbolizes the 19th century mindset where it was commonly thought
that organisms were unchanged since their divine creation only a few
thousand years earlier. In section three, an array of objects, specimens, and letters
show us how Darwin grew up and developed from an indifferent student into the
avid naturalist who became fascinated with beetles. And we learn more
about Darwin through a video biography narrated by his great-great grandson
Wendell Keynes.
>>WENDELL KEYNES: Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has
shaped the way we interpret the natural world. It has formed the foundation of
modern biology and is now recognized as one of the central theories of science.
>>NARRATOR: In part four—Voyage of the Beagle—live animals, taxidermy specimens, fossils, and
models create a three-dimensional landscape and soundscape that provides a
compelling window into the five-year long journey around the world, which
Darwin himself called the most important event of his life. The objects he took
with him are on display, including a German language Bible, the ship's logbook,
his pistol, and findings collected during the journey.
>>RAXWORTHY: When people walk in there, to begin with they're sort of dazzled by
this spectacular rich diversity, which is
surrounding them, including live animals. And then, suddenly, people are sort of
drawn into different objects and you can see this sort of look of amazement as
wanderers- as they wander through. But I think beyond that, then finally,
towards the end of that section they really start to understand the key
pieces of evidence that Charles Darwin took from that voyage and would
ultimately come up with the theory of natural selection.
>>NARRATOR: Then comes a fifth
area of the exhibit, which shows how he settled in London to contemplate his
theories on evolution and natural selection. His research continues and he
spends hours watching animals that include Jenny the orangutan, which Queen
Victoria calls "disagreeably human." The centerpiece of section five is an elaborate
reconstruction of Darwin's countryside study at Down House where he moved five
years later, and where he would eventually write On the Origin of Species.
>>RAXWORTHY: You can see the portraits- the paintings of the people that he admired.
For example, da Vinci is there. You can see his original microscope, his walking
stick, and also just how efficient he was with space. By being on the voyage, he
really learned to keep everything very neat and tidy in a
very small space in a cabin on the actual boat itself. It's great fun seeing
visitors when they come to the Museum—peering at these notebooks, looking at
the very first evolutionary tree, and seeing how in these little scribbles this
was going to ultimately transform biology. But, of course, he would then keep
those scribbles secret for another 20 years before he would ultimately go
ahead and publish.
>>NARRATOR: And finally the exhibit concludes with Evolution Today,
which explores contemporary examples of modern evolutionary studies and how his
original perspectives and theory have been enhanced and enriched by subsequent
discoveries in paleontology, genetics, and molecular biology. A theater video
explains what is natural selection.
>>NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: What's amazing to me about Darwin is
that he had the courage to ask whether life had been that way for all of time
or whether it evolved from some previous state.
>>NARRATOR: A viral video shows how evolution
can occur in a very short space of time. The other video, which people find
fascinating, is called "What is a Theory?"
>>SCIENTIST: For me, as a scientist who studies the
human genome, the instruction book for our own species, without the framework of
evolution to understand what we look at every day, it would make no sense.
>>RAXWORTHY: We have a wonderful case of butterflies, which actually showcase different
components of natural selection. For example, variation between individuals. You have
to have variation to allow natural selection to occur. So, we actually show
different butterflies of the same species that have subtle differences in
their colorations and markings. We also have interactive screens that you can
touch and games that children and adults can play.
>>NARRATOR: As technology and modern
scientific methods extract new evidence from the natural world, Darwin's theory
is strengthened and confirmed over and over again.
>>RAXWORTHY: The goal of this exhibition was ready to feature Darwin's life and then to put into a context of
modern science, to really explain to people the importance of natural selection and the
impact that he still has on modern-day biology.
>>ELDREDGE: I was really amazed
at the crush of media that we had on our media day. Basically, there
were over 130 camera crews here, and some radio, media from all over the world. It
was tremendously exciting. We had people from Russia and Brazil, in
addition to the usual suspects from the American press. So, it was
enormously exciting and it gave the sense about how successful this exhibition
really was going to be. People spend more time in this exhibit, on average, than any
other exhibit that we've ever put on and they are just drinking it in.
I think some people are focusing on Darwin and his life, other people are are
looking at more of the artifacts, and so forth, and even some people—particularly the
younger ones—might be more attracted to the interactives and the modern
evolutionary section, but I think people are coming away with a sense that
science is done by human beings, that Darwin was a very bright and creative
individual, and they think- I think they go away with a sense of how he did it
and what it was that he actually did.
>>KINZLER: Overwhelmingly, the feedback from
educators after visiting the Darwin exhibition is extremely positive. They
found that they've been able to make so many different concepts that they're
working hard to bring alive, to make concrete, to make accessible for their
students, to use this exhibit to teach what is a theory, the nature of science,
and the key aspects of evolution itself—how does natural selection work.
>>RAXWORTHY: So, we're actually making education also entertaining, so that people come here
into the public gallery space, they really enjoy the rich content that we
provide, and also there's a terribly important scientific integrity behind it.
And that's really backed up by our scientific staff—our curators and 200
scientists that work on site here.