Secord James A
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, United Kingdom.
Isis. 2009 Sep;100(3):537-41. doi: 10.1086/644629.
Since his death in 1882, if not before, Charles Darwin has been a key icon of the modern era. The bearded sage of Down House has been invoked in a wide range of contexts in the English-speaking world, from eugenics and social policy to debates about the implications of science for religious belief. The essays in this Focus section explore the Darwinian image in an unusual diversity of media, examining portrait photographs, portable sculptures,newspaper caricatures, cartoons, after-dinner drinking songs, and long-playing records. They suggest that Darwin's celebrity needs to be understood not as the outcome of the unique qualities of his life and work, but as an aspect of the emergence of the idea of the scientist, a process closely tied to the developing communication and entertainment industries of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
自1882年查尔斯·达尔文去世以来（即便不是在此之前），他一直是现代社会的关键象征人物。这位唐屋村留着胡须的智者在英语世界的诸多语境中被提及，涵盖了从优生学和社会政策到关于科学对宗教信仰影响的辩论等各个方面。本专题文章以非同寻常的多样媒介探究达尔文的形象，审视肖像照片、便携式雕塑、报纸漫画、卡通画、餐后饮酒歌以及密纹唱片。这些文章表明，达尔文的名人地位不应被理解为其生活与工作独特品质的结果，而应被视作科学家这一概念兴起的一个方面，这一过程与19世纪末20世纪初不断发展的通信和娱乐产业紧密相连。
