D3485: Darwin’s books & marginalia: Tracing the impact of BD Walsh’s correspondence and publications

B.D. Walsh, an Englishman and contemporary of Charles Darwin, is distinguished as a U.S. pioneering entomologist and the first state entomologist of Illinois. Walsh and Darwin corresponded during the last 5 years of Walsh’s life, sharing scientific ideas and published works. In this poster, I show images of hand-written annotations (marginalia) that Darwin wrote on his personal copies of Walsh’s publications, now preserved at Cambridge University Library, UK. From the marginalia and the works on which they appear, I trace Darwin’s responses to and citations of Walsh’s findings and theoretical ideas in the Origin of Species, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, and Descent of Man. I also share relevant excerpts from their correspondence with one another and with other scientists.