Bookshelf: Collecting Evolution
Congratulations to Dr. Matthew J. James from Maritime Hawai‘i!
We are pleased to announce the publication of his book, Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin.
From the Oxford University Press site:
In Collecting Evolution, author Matthew James finally tells the story of the 1905 Galapagos expedition. James follows these eight young men aboard the [schooner] Academy to the Galapagos and back, and reveals the reasons behind the groundbreaking success they had. A current Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, James uses his access to unpublished writings and photographs to provide unprecedented insight into the expedition. We learn the voyagers’ personal stories, and how, for all the scientific progress that was made, just as much intense personal drama unfolded on the trip.
Dr. James, who is currently a Professor of Geology and Paleontology at Sonoma State University in California, grew up on O‘ahu, did his undergraduate work at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and still maintains close ties to Hawai‘i.
While Collecting Evolution is beyond the scope of this website, it will still appeal to our readers who are interested in early 1900s maritime history and fascinated by scientific expeditions.
An early version of the manuscript that became Collecting Evolution won the 2011 Karl Kortum Award for Maritime History from the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library. Dr. James has also researched and written about the history of the 89-foot composite schooner, Academy (ex-Earnest), that was launched in Baltimore, Maryland in 1870.
You can read more about Academy here:
This originally appeared in the book, The Role of Science for Conservation, edited by M. Wolff and M. Gardener.
