John Edmonstone
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John Edmonstone is included in the list of 100 Great Black Britons compile by Patrick Vernon.
John Edmonstone was originally a black slave. He came from Guyana in South America. Charles Waterton taught John taxidermy. His master, Charles Edmonstone brought him to Glasgow. After he was freed John Edmonstone practiced taxidermy first in Glasgow. Later he settled in Edinburgh at 37 Lothian Street and taught students at Edinburgh University taxidermy.
John Edmonstone and Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin learnt taxidermy from him. Darwin was 16 years old at the time and becoming disillusioned with learning medicine. He described Edmonstone as, “'very pleasant and intelligent”. John Edmonstone gave Darwin inspiring accounts of tropical rain forests in South America and may have encouraged Darwin to explore there. Edmonstone also told young Charles Darwin about his life as a slave. Throughout his life Darwin hated slavery. Edmonstone may have encouraged this detestation in Darwin.
Certainly the taxidermy Darwin learnt from Edmonstone helped him greatly during The Voyage of the Beagle.
References
- [One Hundred Great Black Britons]
- [BBC Radio 4, Making History]
- [Literature, Science and Human Nature]
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