550: Trees of Life–Phylogeny at the Library

From Elementary Geology, 1844

Organization is one of the primary concerns here at the library.  At the St. Louis Public Libary, we use the Dewey Decimal System to help classify over 4.5 million items.

…But librarians aren’t the only ones with organization on the brain–for example, scientists concerned with the study of phylogeny attempt to chart the evolutionary history of all the world’s organisms.  Sort of like a gigantic family tree.

We have a couple of amazing examples of “phylogenic trees” at the library, including the above example by 19th century Geologist and third President of Amhurst College, Edward Hitchcock.  I came upon this beautiful, hand-colored “Paleontological Chart” tucked inside his 1844 book, Elementary Geology (3rd edition).  It may look more like fuzzy seaweed than a tree, but it is absolutely gorgeous.

Detail of Hitchcock's "Paleontological Chart", 1844

Another example of a “tree of life” is found in Ernst Haeckel’s 1897 book, The Evolution of Man.  Unlike Hitchcock’s chart, which reflects his theory that a Diety was the agent of change in regard to the history of organisms, Haeckel’s tree has more in common with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Detail of Haeckel's "Tree of Life" from the Evolution of Man, 1897

For more information about phylogeny, or to see more modern examples of “trees of life”, visit the Tree of Life Web Project online, or check out these books related to evolutionary history:

Visions of Nature: The art and science of Ernst Haeckel, by Olaf Briedbach (2006)

New Thinking about Evolution, by John Raffety (2011)

Survival of the Beautiful: Art, science and evolution, by David Rothenberg (2011)