As Jonathan Smith notes at the beginning of Charles Darwin and Victorian Visual Culture, Darwin's most famous book is almost completely devoid of illustration. There is only one illustration in On the Origin of Species, a powerfully abstract diagram of branching evolutionary descent. In this, as in much else, the Origin was unusual. Illustration was a highly valued feature of 19th-century work in zoology, botany, and geology, whether it was intended for specialists or for a broader public.
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