Skip to content

4.1 Places

4.1 Places

During Darwin’s lifetime -and even after- his name was given to different places and was honoured.

  • An expanse of water adjoining the Beagle Channel was named Darwin Sound by Robert FitzRoy after Darwin’s prompt action, along with two or three of the men, saved them from being marooned on a nearby shore when a collapsing glacier caused a large wave that would have swept away their boats
  • The nearby Mount Darwin in the Andes was named in celebration of Darwin’s 25th birthday
  • Another Darwin Sound in British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands, between Moresby Island and Lyell Island, was named in 1878 by Canada’s then-chief geographer George M. Dawson for Darwin
  • When the Beagle was surveying Australia in 1839, Darwin’s friend John Lort Stokes sighted a natural harbour which the ship’s captain Wickham named Port Darwin
  • The settlement of Palmerston founded there in 1869 was officially renamed Darwin in 1911. It became the capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory
  • Northern Territory also boasts Charles Darwin University (pictured below) and Charles Darwin National Park
  • Darwin College, Cambridge, founded in 1964, was named in honour of the Darwin family, partially because they owned some of the land it was on

 

Charles Darwin University
Charles Darwin University (Wikipedia)