Title: Photograph of Down House, home of Charles Darwin

Creator: unknown

Description: By the 1920s, Charles Darwin’s home Down House in Kent had been operating as a series of girls’ schools. Following an appeal by the President of the British Association Sir Arthur Keith in 1927, that the house should be in national possession, it was purchased by George Buckston Browne, FRCS, from Darwin’s grandson. Browne gifted it, along with an endowment of £20,000 to the British Association for it to be run as museum and where it was overseen by a special ‘Down House Committee’. The photographs were commissioned by the BA’s Down House Committee and donated to a number of different organisations connected with the naturalist with a view to the images being put on permanent display.

The house is now owned by English Heritage.

Date: 1935

Format: Black and white photograph

Archive reference: LDGSL/1050/3

Image reference: 25-03

Recommended print size: Up to 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30cm)