Happy #DarwinDay! What is Darwin Day? The day Charles Darwin was born. I have been reading about how John Edmonstone taught Darwin how to do taxidermy, a skill that was essential for preserving skins of birds that played such a special role in the development of his ideas. 1

Edmonstone had been enslaved on a plantation of Scotsman Charles Edmonstone in what is now Guyana, and was trained in taxidermy by the son-in-law of the plantation owner, Charles Waterton. John made his way to Scotland and became free in 1817. He lived near Darwin. 2

and worked at the natural history museum preparing specimens and teaching students the craft. Charles Darwin, 17 at the time, loved natural history and hired John Edmonstone to train him in taxidermy. John have lessons every day for two months! 3

Without the skills Darwin learned from Edmonstone it seems like the puzzle pieces for Darwin’s theory might not have falling into place. Gould may never have been able to see in his hand the birds Darwin thought were from different families (but were in fact all finches)...4

There are several good articles about the influence of John Edmonstone on Charles Darwin, including one by my friend and colleague @DNLee5 : https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/urban-scientist/you-should-know-john-edmonstone/ 5

and Jane McNish : https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/john-edmonstone-the-man-who-taught-darwin-taxidermy.html and Sabrina Imbler: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/freed-slave-darwin-taxidermy 6

Today we remember the life of and contribution of Charles Darwin, who lifted the veil of ignorance on how we and all other forms of life came to be, but he didn’t do it in a vacuum. A formerly enslaved Black naturalist was key to it all and so we remember John Edmonstone too.