The Origins and History of DDC
We suspect that ever since Charles Darwin
published his famous book, On The Origin of Species that there have been
sporadic efforts to celebrate his accomplishments. One, with a recent
but prolonged history, was initiated in 1980, at Salem College in
Massachusetts. This weeklong event called the Darwin Festival continues
to be held each year.
However, the history, that leads directly to this
Darwin Day Web site, was initiated by Dr. Robert (Bob)
Stephens and took place at Stanford University. The first EVENT sponsored by a Stanford student group was
held on April 22, 1995, featuring the discoverer of the early fossil human called ‘Lucy’, the famous anthropologist Dr. Donald
Johanson, who gave a lecture
entitled "Darwin and Human Origins" to over 600 people in the Kresge
Auditorium.
In subsequent years the location and date of the celebration was
changed to coincide with Darwin's birthday and was held on, or near,
February 12 each year. The success of the venture is reflected in the list of speakers
which include
Richard Dawkins, 1996;
Paul Berg, 1997;
Robert Sapolsky, 1998;
Douglas Hofstadter, 1999;
Michael Shermer, 2001;
Robert Stephens and Arthur Jackson,
2003; Robert and Lola Stephens, 2004;
and Eugenie Scott, 2005.
In the
intervening years, after the original Darwin Day Celebration was established,
Bob worked with other groups to expand the idea
of celebrating Science and Humanity. Modern cultures, which rely so
heavily on scientific knowledge which was developed solely on the basis of
human curiosity and ingenuity, had not developed a tradition by which to show
appreciation for this phenomenal knowledge system which is largely
responsible for providing all of us with the standard of health and
prosperity that we enjoy today. Therefore, the Darwin Day celebration
was seen as an authentic way to show appreciation to all those, both
past and present, who have contributed to the scientific enterprise. The
overall goal of the original concept was to recognize the achievements
of humanity as represented in the acquisition of verifiable
scientific knowledge.
In the year 2000, after a serendipitous meeting
between two Darwin enthusiasts, Amanda Chesworth and Bob Stephens -- they co-founded
the Darwin Day Program. Bob became Chairman of the Board and President of the
nonprofit corporation while Amanda became a member of the Board, Secretary and
Executive Director of the Program. Amanda's interest in Darwin complemented that of
Dr. Stephens by having had a long-standing interest in Darwinian evolution and
also, by having independently hosted previous Darwin events. The third member
of the Board was Dr. Massimo Pigliucci who, also independently, initiated an annual
Darwin Day event at the University of Tennessee, in 1997. Dr. Pigliucci became
the Vice President.
Arthur Jackson, who had been involved since the original Darwin Day Celebration
in 1995, became a member of the Board in 2002. Much was accomplished during
the next 3 years and much of the credit goes to Amanda. The number of EVENTS
that took place around the world increased substantially over these years and
thousands of people attended these events to learn more about Darwin.
More importantly however, they learned about Science and the role of humans in
developing the Scientific Method that permitted the acquisition of an enormous
amount of verifiable scientific knowledge, that is now available to modern humans.
To Amanda's credit, a substantial book was published in 2003 by Tangled Bank Press,
entitled Darwin Day Collection One.
Celebrating Science and Humanity within our various cultures throughout the world is
an idea that is overdue, and the current mission of Darwin Day is to greatly expand our outreach efforts directed towards
a Global Celebration in 2009, Darwin's 200th birthday. Please register your event with us.
For current and ongoing information about Darwin Day Celebration please go to Organization.
Additional independent Darwin Celebrations have also been developed. For instance, in 1997 the University
of Tennessee initiated an annual two-day event sponsored by the Tennessee
Darwin Coalition.
This web site is an excellent example for other Universities to visit
when they are considering the development of a Darwin Day project for
their campus.
Baruck College has an interesting Darwin web site
with a number of facets to it, that was started in 1998 with
an ‘Introduction to Charles Darwin.’ Subsequent
additions took the form of Faculty
Development Colloquia and Seminars.
Shrewsbury
England is the place where Charles Darwin was born and this small town
in the Western Midlands near the Welsh border has had a week long
Celebration in early February for the past four years. However, in 2005
they expanded the Celebration to a month-long affair. This
impressive Celebration
will feature films, speakers, and plays,
together with many activities
for citizens and visitors alike. They recognize the importance of
their "most famous native son" and look forward to expanding their celebration.
A novel way of celebrating Darwin that has its roots in the misty past
is to have a "Phylum Feast".
This tradition has been nurtured
since 1989
by the personnel at the Eastern Biodiversity Museum
at Bishop Mills, Canada.
Once
our web site was established in 2000 we invited all those around the
world who wanted to join the Celebration of Science and Humanity
to register and advertise their events on this site and you
can review
them here. Note that events take
place in many countries and vary from private dinner parties to
week-long symposia. Our current objective is to reach out to ever
greater numbers of people and organizations to make Darwin Day a
truly
International Celebration.
No doubt there are other Darwin-related events
with historical significance of which we are not currently aware. However, if you will send us your information we will be happy to
include it here. Thank you in advance for your assistance.