The Origin of Species

This image shows UCC’s rare and valuable
first edition copy of Origin prior to conservation.
To mark the 150th anniversary of its publication,
this volume has now been restored.

2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species … a pandora’s box from which influences spread far and wide. Darwin’s 5-year epic voyage as naturalist on HMS Beagle took him to South America, where most of the observations and facts were gathered on which he based his theory of evolution by natural selection. Yet, while he returned from his epic trip in 1836, the Origin of Species was not published until 1859. Indeed, if Alfred Russel Wallace had not written to him in 1858 – enclosing a brief statement of a theory of evolution similar to Darwin’s own – he might have delayed longer still with its preparation.

On July 1 1858, Sir Charles Lyell and Dr JD Hooker communicated to the Linnean Society the paper entitled “On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection” by Mr Charles Darwin and Mr Alfred Wallace. So, the scientific and intellectual communities of the day were alerted to this radically new way of looking at the natural world, how animal and plant species might evolve and adapt to their environments.

Darwin’s greatest work has always engendered controversy,
even moral outrage. Alas, strong feelings often lead feeble
minds to make "symbolic gestures"
— such as defacing a library book!

The first edition of Origin of Species, of which all 1,250 copies sold out within a day. Queen's College Cork acquired a first edition. A second edition was published 6 weeks later.

Darwin’s correspondence reveals communications with his contemporaries in QCC, including Robert Harkness, Andrew Leith Adams, Joseph Greene, Robert Kane, James Nicol, and Robert Romer. As controversy grew and debates pursued and as future theorists, supporters, detractors, recorders and illustrators published in subsequent years, the Library of Queen’s College Cork continued to add to its collections.