Spring Break: Alchemical Texts and Darwin Art

I went to new Haven for spring break.

The Beinecke Rare book and Manuscript Library has several interesting past, current, and future exhibitions dealing with the history of math and science. For example, "Trees in Fact and Fable" examines its subject from several disciplines, including botany. There is one about mathematics in early modern England, an International Year of Astronomy exhibition called "Starry Messenger", and some works on alchemy in the European imagination. (I got to see that one.)

Also at Yale, the Yale Center for British Art is hosting an exhibition called "Endless Forms": Charles Darwin, Natural Science, and the Visual Arts (site here). It deals with the effect the publication of Origin of Species had on the arts world. It includes scientific diagrams, paintings depicting prehistoric humans and other creatures, fanciful illustrations of past humanity, Romantic depictions of "the struggle for existence", and photographs of non-European people meant for the scientific study of race. Or I might say pseudo-scientific.