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Charles Darwin: Advertising

Cigar box lithograph, New York

This lithograph was a cigar salesman’s sample label, hence the prices at the bottom. The lithographer was F. Hepenheimer’s Sons and the image was made in the late 1880s or early 1890s. Of course, Professor Darwin was never a professor.

Advertising card for Salvation Oil, Baltimore

This advertising card for Dr. Bull’s Cough Syrup and Salvation Oil was one of many cards from the late 1800s (perhaps 1880s) to make reference to Darwin and the ancestry of humans. In this case, the reader is asked to “Take the month of your birth, follow the line through the maze, and thus settle the ancestral question a la Darwin.”

Advertising card for Frank Miller’s Shoe Blackings

This late nineteenth century card, printed by Wimple & Company, New York, suggests a superior shine by showing a monkey using a boot as a shaving mirror. This is yet another reminder to the lay public of the hypothesized relationship between humans and other primates.

Advertising card for J. H. Bunn’s, Philadelphia

This advertising card for J. H. Bunn’s Old Established Wall Paper Store makes reference to the first baby being a monkey. Note under the tail, “Darwin.” Humorous cards such as this one reflect the movement of evolutionary ideas about human ancestry from the scientific community to society at large.

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Advertising Merchant’s Gargling Oil

The same clever poem appears with two versions of an ape for Merchant’s, a New York firm that sold liniments and oils. (Left) An advertising card; obverse, A. M. Young, Watchmaker, Schenectady N.Y. (Right) The back cover of the Merchant’s Gargling Oil Songster, a booklet with songs and advertising.

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Advertising card for Blue Ribbon Cigar, St. Louis

This advertising card for blue Ribbon Cigars was manufactured by Geo. Fehl B. R. C. CO. under patent number 537,441. By pulling on the tab, the policeman is transformed into a gorilla. This card thus emphasizes — while mocking — the evolutionary origin of humans from other primates and the process of evolutionary transformation.

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Early Evolutionists

  • Ancients
    • Lucretius
  • 1748-1799
    • Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
    • Erasmus Darwin
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    • James Hutton
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    • Pierre Louis Maupertuis
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  • 1800-1839
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  • 1840-1859
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    • Charles Darwin
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    • Frederic Gerard
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    • Rev. Baden Powell
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    • Matthias Jakob Schleiden
    • Herbert Spencer
    • Charles Southwell
    • Franz Unger
    • Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan
    • Alfred Russel Wallace
Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the home of the Friedman Lab

The Friedman Lab

Evolutionary History and
Plant Development

Department of Organismic
and Evolutionary Biology
Arnold Arboretum
Harvard University
1300 Centre Street
Boston, MA 02131

Principal Investigator

Dr. William (Ned) Friedman
Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University

Phone: 617.384.7744
Fax: 617.384.6596
Email: ned@oeb.harvard.edu

Administrator

Alison Ring
Special Assistant
Weld Hill Research Building
Office: 617.384.5241
Fax: 617.384.6596
Email: aring@fas.harvard.edu
Copyright © Friedman Lab. Site by Academic Web Pages
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