Victorian-era Geological Society of London members incorporated Charles Darwin’s illustrated geological coral growth argument in field guides used by Geological Survey students and naturalists’ clubs. This talk traces the evolution of Darwin’s images, first viewed in 1837 during his research presentation at Somerset House and later published in The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842) and Journal of Researches (1845). Using annotated versions of Darwin’s woodcuts, geologists Joshua Trimmer (Practical Geology and Mineralogy, 1841), Henry De la Beche (The Geological Observer, 1851), and Thomas Wright (Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club, 1868) demonstrated for specific audiences why, how, and when Britain’s stored wealth in local coral fossil limestone deposits was accumulated. Through these case studies I argue that Geological Society of London participants framed the volume of indigenous coral reserves in terms of colonial-region coral growth, thus encouraging nineteenth-century field guide readers to engage in debates regarding the interpretation of Britain’s geological past, present, and future in the context of the geologists’ role in imperial resource management. More broadly, these case studies disclose the reverberations of Darwin’s coral growth theory among Geological Society members. In field guides designed to educate Victorian readers, geologists situated the focus of their emerging professional practices within the integration of theory and practice in global coral research conducted throughout the British empire.
