Before Vanderbilt: Foundations of Evolutionary Thought

Ideas about evolution pre-date Vanderbilt and this case highlights early thinkers. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s research on invertebrates helped redefine biology, James Parkinson’s Organic Remains of a Former World captured the public imagination, and Mary Anning’s discovery of marine reptiles like the plesiosaur helped lay the groundwork for Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Artifacts include Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Lamarck’s Invertebrates (donated by Vanderbilt geologist L.C. Glenn), and a letter from Tennessee botanist Augustin Gattinger to Asa Gray, a leading American botanist and Darwinist, showing how evolutionary science took root before Vanderbilt’s founding.