December 14th is Monkey Day. We can celebrate the day with a kids book like “Five Little Monkeys, Jumping on the Bed” by Eileen Christelow, 2004. I have read this book to kids for a long time.
Or How about any one of the books by Margaret & H.A. Rey, like “Curious George’s Dinosaur Discovery” 2008.
But then we can evolve into other books like “Who Is Jane Goodall?” by Roberta Edwards, 2012. Jane Goodall went to Africa in 1953 to work with Louis Leakey. He helped her to develop studies on chimpanzees and their behaviour. At 90, she is the foremost authority on chimpanzees in the world.
In the mid 1850’s, there were writings about man evolving from monkeys. After Darwin published his “Origin of Species” book about evolution, he developed a friendship with Thomas H. Huxley. Huxley wrote “Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature”. Whereas Darwin did not like to publicly speak, Huxley did. He became known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”.
I have the pamphlet “Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature” published by Humboldt Library of Science, perhaps 1882 or 1883. This work was number four in the series. It was then rebound in hardback by the H. Parmelee Library Company (more on that later) with another pamphlet “On the Origin of Species: a Course of Six Lectures” also by Thomas H. Huxley. This was number sixteen in the series of pamphlets, advertised as ‘a critical examination of Mr. Darwins great work.’
The “Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature” book was originally published in 1863, four years after Darwin’s book came out. Huxley was made famous by comparing various primates with humans, and studying fossils for signs of evolution. It is interesting to read the book, especially in the old two column print on a page style.
The illustrations were crazy as well. They helped form the information used for classroom training for evolution, and then later for the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925.
The pamphlets were quite quite interesting. Also intriguing, would be the binding (at least for us quirky bibliophiles). The hard binding was for a portable library program.
It was the H. Parmelee Library Company in Des Moine, Iowa. They moved to Chicago in 1890. This company would take a subscription from a town, and then send 50 of its standard 1000 set library to the town. Every three months, the books would be rotated for a different 50 books.
This would go on twenty times. This was a library club, not a free library. Parmelee would also have a program that they would sell books for a permanant selection at the indivdual library.
When my children were growing up, we had grandparents that lived in Florida. Almost every year, we would take a trip to Florida. It was always by car. Of course we would sing to pass the time. When we got to Tennessee, driving on Interstate 24, my wife and I would certainly break out in song, as we drove through Clarksville.
We would play on cassette, and then on CD for the kids to hear and learn.
I have the CD “Greatest Hits of the Monkeys” The second song is “Last Train to Clarksville”. Just this last May, we were driving back through Clarksville, coming back from Florida. I looked at my wife, then broke out in song.
“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.” – George Carlin
“I learned the way a monkey learns – by watching its parents.” – Prince Charles
“Writer is a monkey, jumping from one tree to another in the jungle of words.” – Melmet Murat Ildan (But as my brother says “Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees.”)
Thanks for reading.
Librarytomes 