Philip Henry Gosse wrote field guides to beaches and tide pools. His vivid illustrations of jelly fish and anemones, along with his invention of the seaweed aquarium and the first public aquarium in London in 1853, drew people to the beaches. Though Gosse was deeply religious, he trusted Darwin’s Origin of Species because he observed similar patterns in marine biology. In Omphalos, Gosse argued God created the world in medias res. If Adam had a belly-button but no mother, God could put fossils into rock.
“Philip Henry Gosse – Aquarium”
Cyanotype on rag paper, 18″ X 24″
Amber MacGregor ©2020
Listen to the poem “Henry” by Astrid van der Pol
Henry
© Astrid van der Pol