Darwin exhibit at Fernbank shows the man behind the theories

On the surface, it’s a bit weightier than recent exhibits on mythical creatures and the mysteries of water.

But the new “Darwin” display at Fernbank Museum of Natural History, opening Sept. 24 and stationed until January, allows plenty of perusing choices.

The hardcore science-minded might gravitate toward the model of a Glyptodon, an extinct armored relative of the armadillo roughly the size of a small electric car, or study the actual bone skeletons of a domestic bulldog and chimpanzee.

But those unsure of or uninterested in the Charles Darwin whose exhaustive research led to the theory of evolution and eventual publication of the still-controversial “The Origin of Species” can concentrate on the Darwin, the human. This is a guy who got seasick on his five-year journey around the world, expressed his heartbreak when he received word of an old girlfriend marrying and eventually found a mate (his first cousin) and fathered 10 children.

“There’s more to Darwin than evolution,” said Lynn Anders, animal care program manager and a resident biology expert at the museum. “Through his observations and studies he was able to create this theory, but he was a man, a person, like everybody else.”

The Fernbank team is taking not necessarily a lighthearted approach to the exhibit, but one that spotlights the personality behind the facts. The tagline on posters advertising “Darwin” read “Scientist. Naturalist. Serious To Do List,” while the father of evolution has his own museum-related Twitter handle – @DarwinPosse.

A walk through the comprehensive display, which is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York and is making its first appearance in the South after a six-year wait, provides details on Darwin’s childhood – his mother died when he was 8, he didn’t fare well in school and his father, a physician, never cottoned to his obsession with beetles, fossils and magnifying glasses – through the publication of “Origin” in 1859.

As expected, the majority of the sprawling, multi-room presentation concentrates on his five-year expedition on the HMS Beagle – from 1831-36 – a trip his father nearly prohibited him from joining.

Some highlights of “Darwin”:

• A look at an intensely scaled-down model of the Beagle, on which Darwin slept in a hammock over a table and shared a 10 x 11 foot cabin with two other men. His complaints about seasickness are clearly warranted.

• Iggy, a 6-year-old, 5-pound female iguana will gaze intently at visitors until you're certain she's going to talk. The local iguana represents Darwin's fascination with the lizards that he discovered on his first trip to South America. Don't miss the horned frogs in this exhibit room – they can be hard to spot.

• Replicas of blue-footed boobies, black marine iguanas known to sun themselves on black rocks, giant tortoises and a mini octopus in a glass jar give patrons an idea of what Darwin experienced during his life-changing visit to the Galapagos.

• An assortment of impossible-to-read letters (or, facsimiles of them) among Darwin and his uncle, who convinced Darwin's father to allow his son to take the Beagle voyage, and Darwin's captain; and a notepad drawing of the first "tree of life" that Darwin sketched a year after his return.

• A reconstruction of Darwin's study, including his desk chair with wheels – not commonplace in those days – chemical bottles, microscopes and his trusty walking stick.

• A wall of skulls suggesting the ancestral lineage of human evolution.

• A 2002 Cobb County biology book bearing a warning sticker that the academic tome contained material about evolution and "should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered." The Atlanta book was part of the "Darwin" exhibit in New York, but along its travels to England, China and the Midwest, other local textbooks were requested for that slot.

Mostly, though, Fernbank organizers hope that the presentation breeds curiosity instead of controversy.