About Us

Who created this website?

This website was created by me, David Leff. I am an amateur scholar of the History of Science, with a focus on scientific developments during the Victorian era (around 1835 to 1900).

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How did I get the idea to create this website?

I have had a passing interest in Charles Darwin since I was a boy, but all I ever knew was that he developed some sort of theory of evolution and wrote a few good books on the subject.

During the summer of 1998 I went on a six week holiday to England and Wales and in my travels I ended up visiting many places related to the life of Charles Darwin. It was during my rambling about the English countryside that it occurred to me just how little I knew about who Darwin was.

Upon returning to the states I resolved to learn more about Darwin, so I bought Desmond & Moores Darwin – The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist.

The more I read the more I wanted to know about this fascinating individual. I noticed that the text made heavy use of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin series of books, so I bought Volume-1 and devoured it as quickly as I could.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I bought more volumes of the Correspondence, many of the Darwin works edited by Paul Barrett & R.B. Freeman, Charles Darwins Notebooks, and so on. I now have over forty books by or about Charles Darwin, several dozen journal papers about him, and over one thousand photographs of places related to his life.