Darwin�s personal items, original manuscript material and his famous Beagle notebooks go on display at Down House from13 February 2009 Rare original objects, including notebooks written by Charles Darwin during his epic voyage on HMS Beagle, go on display from 13 February 2009 in a new exhibition marking the bi-centenary of his birth, at the house where he lived and worked for forty years - Down House, near Orpington in Kent. Opening in the year which also sees the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, written at Down House, the new permanent exhibition is the focus of an innovative project by English Heritage which presents the scientist�s life, work and theories to modern-day visitors in 21st century style. English Heritage�s Chairman, Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe said: �This new one million pound exhibition brings the man and his family, his painstaking research and his ground-breaking theories to life. It places Down House firmly on the international map as one of the world�s most important scientific heritage sites.� As well as the exhibition combining rare original material with hi-tech displays, visitors to The Home of Charles Darwin can now also enjoy a lively multi-media tour, narrated by Sir David Attenborough and Andrew Marr. It brings Darwin�s daily life at the charming rural home, which doubled as the hub of his experiments, vividly into the present day in this special anniversary year. Access to the unique Darwin collection, both at the house and online, is also being provided for the first time. English Heritage holds one of the two most important collections of Darwin manuscript material in the world. Visitors will have access to the unique Beagle Collection � Darwin�s field notebooks and diary � via interactive displays on site as well as online, using special technology which lets users explore this outstanding material in digital format. Star attractions in the new first floor exhibition tracing Darwin�s life and his controversial theories include: Darwin�s personal possessions including his hat, microscope, notebooks and on public display for the first time, his copy of Das Kapital inscribed by Karl Marx. A detailed look at his five year voyage on the Beagle, with his notebooks and diary in digital format for visitors to explore. A full size replica of Darwin�s confined cabin on HMS Beagle, which he shared with two others and where he experienced long bouts of sea-sickness. Darwin examined thousands of the specimens he collected and recorded his discoveries in the cramped cabin. At about 6 feet tall, he had to remove a drawer to accommodate his feet before bedding down in his hammock to sleep. Exceptionally rare pages from the manuscript of On the Origin of Species - only 43 pages are known to survive - and a first edition of the book. Manuscripts, specimens and other objects presenting the story of the seismic impact the book had when it was published. Interactive displays using traditional Victorian illusion and toys, such as mutoscopes/�What the Butler Saw� and bagatelle to allow visitors to explore Darwin�s theory for themselves. Original family objects � including Emma Darwin�s wedding ring, the slide Darwin had made by a local carpenter so that his children could have fun sliding down the stairs and the menagerie of the tiny toy animals they played with. Conservation work has given a fresh feel to family rooms on the ground floor of Down House, presented much as they were in Darwin�s time. They include Darwin�s study, overflowing with his books, instruments and objects, the drawing room where he played backgammon every evening with his wife Emma and the billiard room where he potted the black with Parslow, his butler for 37 years � who Darwin also recruited to help him boil up carcasses of pigeons in the kitchen so that he could examine the skeletons! The brown, cream and gold botanical Wedgwood �waterlily� dinner service, inherited by Darwin from his mother Susannah, is also on display for the first time in the dining room. A new handheld video guide, using film clips and animation, gives visitors a lively and interactive tour of the house and the restored garden. The tour takes in a number of Darwin�s experiments recreated in his �outdoor laboratory,� the garden and fields surrounding Down House, where he observed the different varieties of plant and animal life and formulated almost all of his most important theories. Charles Darwin moved to Down House from London in 1842, six years after returning from his five-year voyage on the Beagle and three years after marrying his cousin Emma Wedgwood in January 1839. Close to the capital but providing a sanctuary for Darwin to work in peace and the space for a large family � seven of their ten children survived to maturity � Down House served the dual roles of a comfortable home and a busy work place. Always seeking answers to the perplexing questions nature posed, Darwin had a constant stream of practical experiments in progress inside the house, in the garden and in the fields beyond, as he explored and proved his theories. The experiments took forward some of the observations Darwin made during the Beagle voyage, and ultimately cemented his theories about evolution through the process of natural selection published in On the Origin of the Species and The Descent of Man. They also fuelled many other published works, ranging from The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication to his studies of orchids and climbing plants, and his two volumes on barnacles, the result of eight years of research undertaken at Down House. These so dominated his time, that one of his sons is said to have asked a neighbour�s child �where does your father do his barnacles?� Several key experiments � including those on plants and insects in the garden and greenhouse which dominated Darwin�s life after publication of the On the Origin of Species � can be seen at Down House today, including: The worm stone - Darwin devoted many years to the study of earthworms. At one time he had worms in pots in his study and the drawing room to test their sense of smell, sound and taste. His engineer son Horace, devised the stone so that Darwin could record the action of worms. Over a 17 year period the stone helped to show that worm activity brought up 18 tons of earth in every acre of chalk downland annually. Sundews - by feeding some of these insect-eating plants meat, egg white, and his own toe nail clippings and giving others only cinders, Darwin demonstrated that they had evolved an ability to trap insects to obtain the nutrients they needed to survive, not available to them in the soil they grew in. Climbing plants - showing how they had evolved to grow among much taller plants to reach the light required for photosynthesis. A glass sided beehive allows visitors to watch honeybees building honeycomb just as Darwin studied them, to prove how so perfect a structure could be constructed instinctively by insects without some form of divine guidance. Thanks to the prolific letter-writing and note taking of the Darwin family, as well as other records, including photographs taken by Darwin�s son Leonard, English Heritage has been able to repeat not only the experiments at Down but also the layout and planting of the traditional Victorian flower, fruit and vegetable gardens and much of the interior furniture and furnishings. Visitors to Down House, in the pretty village of Downe, are therefore able to get a privileged glimpse of the private life of one of the world�s greatest thinkers and most prolific scientists - a kind and compassionate man who abhorred slavery and cruelty to animals, inspired loyalty amongst his peers, friends and family and was an inspiring and much loved father and husband. Other highlights for visitors to look out for at Down House include: The original mulberry tree still standing close to the house, which it is said the children climbed down from the first floor schoolroom. Darwin�s study, complete with his own personal �privy� behind a partition and his �customised� horsehair armchair, raised onto cast-iron legs to accommodate his long legs, where he wrote hunched over a cloth-covered board balanced across the arms. Annie�s Box. A poignant box of cherished treasures � including letters, trinkets, needlework and a lock of hair � assembled by Emma Darwin and then locked away following the death of their beloved eldest daughter, who died at the age of 10, probably from tuberculosis. Darwin was devastated by her death and he stopped going to church from this time. The Sandwalk, Darwin�s thinking path where he walked daily. Darwin�s home and workplace has been chosen as the UK�s 2009 nomination to become a World Heritage Site. The bid led by Bromley Council and supported by English Heritage, entitled: Darwin�s Landscape Laboratory, comprises Charles Darwin�s house, experimental garden and the countryside immediately around the property and demonstrates how vital the landscape, gardens and house were to the development of his theories. A decision will be made in the summer of 2010. Opening times: The Home of Charles Darwin re-opens on Friday 13 February and is open all week during half term from 11am � 4pm. It is then open from Weds-Sun, 11am-4pm until 31 March; Weds-Sun and Bank Holidays, 11am-5pm 1 Apr-30 Jun; daily 11am-5pm 1 Jul-31 Aug; Weds-Sun 11am-5pm 1 Sept-1 Nov; Weds-Sun 11am-4pm 2 Nov-20 Dec; closed 21 Dec-31 Jan 2010. 2010: Site re-opens 1 Feb-31 Mar 2010 Weds-Sun, 11am-4pm. Admission prices: �8.80 for adults, �7.50 for concessions, �4.40 for children and �22.00 for families (2 adults and up to 3 children). Free for English Heritage members. Directions: The Home of Charles Darwin, Down House is on Luxted Road, Downe, near Orpington, Kent BR6 7JT, off the A21 or A233. By train: from Victoria to Bromley South, then bus 146 or from Victoria or Charing Cross to Orpington then bus R8. Tel: 01689 859119 www.english-heritage.org.uk/darwin For more press information please contact: English Heritage Corporate Communications: Angelah Sparg on 0207 973 3250 or angelah.sparg@english-heritage.org.uk, Debbie Holden on 0207 973 3855 or debbie.holden@english-heritage.org.uk Rebecca Milton on 0207 973 3295 or rebecca.milton@english-heritage.org.uk Images are available from www.picselect.com under Arts/English Heritage/Down House Darwin Photo Call