On Darwin Day: The largest collection of caricatures of Charles Darwin and evolution in history unveiled

SINGAPORE, Feb. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On Darwin Day, 12 February 2025, the Darwin Online project at the National University of Singapore (NUS) launches the largest collection of caricatures of Charles Darwin and evolution in history. It is the result of 25 years of research by historian of science Dr John van Wyhe, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science, drawing on historic magazines, newspapers, books and archives. The edited collection consists of mostly unknown comic illustrations from 1860 to 1939 showing how Darwin and evolution have been represented in the press and popular culture worldwide since the publication of Darwin's origin of species in 1859.

Until recently, only about a dozen caricatures of Darwin were widely known. The new online catalogue provides over 100 caricatures, of which 30 are new discoveries. The evolution caricatures are much more numerous, and their range and diversity are staggering, highlighting the widespread public engagement with the topic of evolution.

This huge collection provides deeper insights into the cultural impact of Darwin's theories. Evolution was used in these illustrations in endlessly surprising ways. Not even experts in this field knew there was this much visual imagery in response to Darwin and his ideas and published in so many parts of the world. Today, it is often overlooked that by the 1870s, thousands of newspapers and magazines around the world featured comic illustrations, including those on Darwin and his theories. Many of the caricatures in this collection curated by Darwin Online were created by some of the best comic writers of their time.

The humour of evolution

Popular ideas, misconceptions, prejudices and older traditions fed into these caricatures which in turn popularised and spread ideas further. For example, one common theme is to make jokes about Darwin's purported claim that humans are descended from monkeys – something he did not in fact believe. Other erroneous but popular themes were the idea that Darwin's theory of evolution is about inevitable progress or the occurrence of so-called degeneration from humans back into animals. Almost all the caricatures show amused ridicule of evolution rather than deep offence or religious outrage.

Darwin's works introduced the public to many phrases and concepts such as natural selection, sexual selection or the struggle for existence. The idea of a supposed 'missing link', referring to transitional species, became a long-lasting theme. Often much older comic imagery was re-branded into Darwin-themed ones such as transformation cartoons showing the origins or 'evolution' of a cat into a violin. Another common theme is monkeys or apes expressing disgust at being related to humans with all their faults. Some caricatures show friends or a married couples looking at a monkey at the zoo ─ the husband eerily resembling the monkey ─ and the joke is that Mrs So-and-so didn't take Darwinism seriously before, but now she sees there might be something to it after all! 

The controversies over teaching evolution in public schools in the USA in the 1920s saw a veritable explosion of these caricatures with the Scopes Monkey Trial 100 years ago. The collection by Darwin Online is by far the largest collection of these caricatures ever assembled. They are both fascinating and often very funny.

Context of the caricatures explained

The collection of caricatures is dated, identified and often the artist and the historical context or meaning explained. Unlike previous compilations, the Darwin Online collection provides the accompanying poems or articles that were originally alongside the illustrations. Without historical context, it is usually impossible to understand what the caricatures originally meant, and often modern readers imagine a very different meaning.

"This unprecedented collection allows us to see how the public reacted to, used and mis-used evolutionary ideas from the moment Darwin published his seminal work, The Origin of Species, and over the next 80 years. There is much to be learned from them. They will be useful for teaching and research. For decades, modern publications and documentaries have re-used the same small handful of caricatures. Now anyone can see at a glance just how many and diverse they were. A lot of them are very clever social commentary, and others are simply hugely enjoyable," said Dr van Wyhe.

Click here to view the catalogue of caricatures (link will be live on 12 February 2025 (GMT+8))

Click here for images. Password: nus2025. Please note that the link will expire on 19 February 2025.

SOURCE National University of Singapore