Charles and Catherine Darwin, 1816
Excerpt from Charles Darwin's autobiography, I have been told that I was much slower in learning than my younger sister Catherine and I believe that I was in many ways a naughty boy. By the time I went to this day-school my taste for natural history, and more especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things, shells, seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for collecting which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist, a virtuoso, or a miser, was very strong in me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or brother ever had this taste. Potrait down by Ellen Sharples (1769-1849) an English painter who specialized in portraits in pastel and in watercolor miniatures on ivory. Courtesy of Lady and George P. Darwin
