To mark the upcoming 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the Natural History Museum in London has launched an extensive Darwin exhibit that will run until April 2009. The museum is displaying an amazing array of Darwin material, with much of it being shown for the first time. The public will get a chance to view some of Darwin's notebooks, stuffed mockingbirds Darwin collected in the Galapagos Islands, a rare first edition of On the Origin of Species, and even an accurate reconstruction of his study, in which he examined specimens and wrote for many years.

The museum web site presents a slideshow of exhibit highlights as well as other multimedia exhibits. And a highly informative review in The Times raves about the museum's exhibit while providing considerable background on Darwin himself.

On November 10, 1871, journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley uttered the greeting which became legendary: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley, an improbable character, had been dispatched by a New York City newspaper to the interior of Africa to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

Upon Stanley's return to civilization, some questioned whether Livingstone had even been missing. But that didn't matter. Stanley returned to Africa with later expeditions, mapping previously mysterious parts of the interior. He always remained controversial, yet he became known as the archetypal African explorer.

Image: Magazine illustration of Stanley greeting Livingstone/Library of Congress

The theme for Barack Obama's inauguration festivities in January will be "A New Birth of Freedom," a quote from one of the 19th century's most revered texts, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

The use of the Lincoln quote will tie the inauguration on January 20th to the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on February 12th, which will also be marked with commemorations in Washington, DC, as well as across the nation.

An informative article in the Washington Post notes that Obama quoted the Gettysburg Address in his address in Grant Park on election night. Furthermore:

Both men were legislators from Illinois. Both were elected at crucial moments in the nation's history. And the election of one paved the way for the election of the other, more than a century later.

An Associated Press article discusses the inauguration theme and also illuminates parallels between President Lincoln and President-elect Obama. Besides providing some serious historical information, the article also notes that a "flurry of editorial cartoons" this week featured both men.

What can go wrong in the final days of a presidential campaign? Plenty, and that's why you've never heard of President James G. Blaine.

The Republican candidate, a nationally prominent politician from Maine, appeared to be cruising to victory in the election of 1884. His opponent, Democrat Grover Cleveland, had been damaged when a paternity scandal surfaced that summer. Gleeful Republicans taunted him by chanting, "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"

And then, in the final days of the campaign, candidate Blaine attended an event where a clergyman supporting his ticket railed against the Democrats, calling them the party of "rum, Romanism, and rebellion." The obvious attack on Irish Catholic voters exploded in the big city newspapers, and losing thousands of votes in New York City probably cost Blaine the election.

After election day, Cleveland's jubilant supporters took up their own chant: "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"

Image: Grover Cleveland/Library of Congress