The Blue Morpho (Morpho menelaus)
Mud to wing, brown to iridescent blue.
Ink sketch from Darwin’s Notebook B, 1837
- ID:
- 001-009
- Discipline:
- Biological
- Era:
- Victorian
- Civilization:
- Great Britain
- Medium:
- Illustration
In 1837, a young opened his private notebook and sketched a crude, branching diagram. Above it, he wrote two words: 'I think.' That drawing — a simple tree of lines and forks — would become one of the most important ideas in scientific history. It was the first visual expression of evolution by common descent: the notion that all living things share a single origin, and that life diversifies through gradual change. Each branch represents a lineage, splitting and adapting, some ending, others continuing — all connected. What makes this artifact extraordinary is not its precision, but its honesty. It is a glimpse into the moment an idea is born. A tree, not of kingdoms or gods, but of genes and time. In place of fixity, Darwin imagined flow. Instead of creation as a single act, he saw it as unfolding — slow, continuous, branching. This small sketch cracked open the static view of life that had endured for millennia. And it began with uncertainty, with humility. With 'I think.'
Artifact Origin
Ink sketch from Darwin’s Notebook B, 1837
- ID:
- 001-009
- Discipline:
- Biological
- Era:
- Victorian
- Civilization:
- Great Britain
- Medium:
- Illustration
Artifact Origin
In 1837, a young opened his private notebook and sketched a crude, branching diagram. Above it, he wrote two words: 'I think.' That drawing — a simple tree of lines and forks — would become one of the most important ideas in scientific history. It was the first visual expression of evolution by common descent: the notion that all living things share a single origin, and that life diversifies through gradual change. Each branch represents a lineage, splitting and adapting, some ending, others continuing — all connected. What makes this artifact extraordinary is not its precision, but its honesty. It is a glimpse into the moment an idea is born. A tree, not of kingdoms or gods, but of genes and time. In place of fixity, Darwin imagined flow. Instead of creation as a single act, he saw it as unfolding — slow, continuous, branching. This small sketch cracked open the static view of life that had endured for millennia. And it began with uncertainty, with humility. With 'I think.'
