Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. He was the fifth child and second son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. Darwin was the British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. Like several scientists before him, Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved (developed gradually) over millions of years from a few common ancestors. From 1831 to 1836 Darwin served as naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle on a British science expedition around the world. In South America Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that were similar to modern species. On the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean he noticed many variations among plants and animals of the same general type as those in South America. The expedition visited places around the world, and Darwin studied plants and animals everywhere he went, collecting specimens for further study.

Upon his return to London Darwin conducted thorough research of his notes and specimens. Out of this study grew several related theories: one, evolution did occur; two, evolutionary change was gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years; three, the primary mechanism for evolution was a process called natural selection; and four, the millions of species alive today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called 'specialization'

Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment. He set these theories forth in his book called, 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life' (1859) or 'The Origin of Species' for short. After publication of Origin of Species, Darwin continued to write on botany, geology, and zoology until his death in 1882. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Darwin's work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed the idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided talking about the theological and sociological aspects of his work, but other writers used his theories to support their own theories about society. Darwin was a reserved, thorough, hard working scholar who concerned himself with the feelings and emotions not only of his family, but friends and peers as well. (From the Natural History Museum archive catalogue)

Henry Denny, entomologist, was for forty-five years curator of the museum of the Literary and Philosophical Society in Leeds. Before his appointment he had published at Norwich in 1825 a monograph on the British species of the genus Pselaphus of Herbst. The peculiar direction thus given to his studies was followed for the rest of his life, and Denny, while duly performing his modest duties of curator, made himself a leading authority on the subject of the parasitic insects which infest man and beast. He was the first salaried curator of the Leeds Museum, and thoroughly identified himself with the interests of that institution. The well-known entomologist Kirby, to whom Denny dedicated his first monograph, endeavoured to secure for the latter employment on a serial publication projected by him for the illustration, by means of coloured plates, of his ‘Introduction to Entomology.’ The negotiations with the publishers on this subject, however, came to naught. The British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1842 made a grant to Denny of fifty guineas for the purpose of assisting him in the study of British Anoplura. Denny died at Leeds on 7 March 1871, at the age of sixty-eight. (From the Dictionary of National Biography)