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© 2006 University of Chicago Library
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When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Darwin Centennial Celebration. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
The Darwin Centennial Celebration, commemorating the publication by Charles Darwin of the Origin of the Species, was held at the University of Chicago from November 24 through November 28, 1959. The Celebration began with a Darwin Day program on November 24, the date of the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species, and featured a lecture by Sir Charles Darwin, grandson of Charles Darwin. On November 26 a special Convocation of the University was held in honor of the Celebration. The principal speaker at the convocation was Sir Julian Huxley. In his address, "The Evolutionary Vision," he proposed that religion, being subject to the laws of evolution, was fast becoming obsolete and would eventually evolve itself out of existence. The evening of the Convocation a performance was given of "Time will Tell," a musical about Darwin's life and work.
The heart of the celebration was a series of five panel discussions, involving about fifty well-known scholars from around the world. These panel discussions covered various facets of evolutionary theory and the influence of evolution on the modern world. Panel I was concerned with the origin of life; Panel II took up the evolution of life; Panel III inquired into the role of man as an organism; Panel IV considered the evolution of the mind; and Panel V discussed social and cultural evolution. The scholars participating in the panel discussions produced papers several months in advance of the conference that were read and criticized by the other scholars taking part in the Celebration. These papers formed the basis for the five panel discussions. The discussions were spontaneous, however, with no papers read.
Also included in the Celebration were a National Conference for High School Biology Teachers, an Institute for High School Teachers of Biology, which examined the problems of teaching evolutionary theory in our public schools, and an Institute on Science and Theology, which examined the relation of science, and more specifically evolution, to theology.
The papers written by the participants previous to the panel discussions were compiled in a three volume set Evolution after Darwin, edited by Sol Tax and Charles Callendar, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1960. In addition to Evolution after Darwin, products of the Centennial Celebration included a film, "The University of Chicago Darwin Centennial Celebration," produced by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, a segment of a television show, "At Random," in which Sir Julian Huxley, Sir Charles Darwin, Adlai Stevenson, and Harlow Shapley participated, and various interviews with the participants, especially with Sir Julian Huxley, whose views resulted in much public controversy, and consequently much publicity for the conference.
The Celebration was the idea of Sol Tax, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, who served as the chairman of the Centennial Committee. The University of Chicago, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research joined in sponsoring the Centennial Celebration.
The collection contains correspondence, invitations, biographical material on celebration participants, publicity, press releases, clippings, photographs, and sound recordings of panel discussions and Centennial proceedings.