Jim Costa bought his first copy of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” when he was in high school but did not grasp the revolution within its pages until he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Costa, WCU professor of biology and director of the Highlands Biological Station, was a teaching assistant for the late Stephen Jay Gould, the legendary evolutionary biologist, when he heard Gould remark that few biology students and professionals ever bother to read the field’s founding document, “The Origin of Species.”

“I realized I, too, was guilty, having only read parts of it,” said Costa. “I threw myself into it and became utterly fascinated with Darwin’s writing.” In “The Origin of Species,” Darwin recorded observations that laid a foundation for the theory of evolution. Although others had suggested the idea of evolution before, it was the volume of evidence presented together in Darwin’s book, with a mechanism – natural selection – that convinced the scientific community.

Costa was inspired to develop a course at WCU in which students read and discuss the book, its historical background and the philosophical context of its arguments and structure. He also began teaching a course on “The Origin of Species” at Oxford University as part of Harvard’s summer program on Darwin.

Now, 200 years after Darwin’s birth and 150 years after the first publication of Darwin’s historic text, Costa has been delivering keynote talks for Darwin celebrations. In May, Harvard University Press will publish his latest book, “The Annotated Origin.” In addition, his WCU students created an exhibit titled “Darwin’s (R)evolution” that is on display at Hunter Library until December. The exhibit features a series of panels about Darwin’s life and development of his insights into evolution. One display case depicts human evolution and features scientific-quality models of early human fossil skulls. Another case presents a selection of Darwin’s books. Costa’s wife, Leslie, served as design consultant, taking the student pieces written for “Darwin’s (R)evolution” and stylistically tying them together.

Jennifer Carman ’08, who worked on the exhibit, said what catches people off guard when they learn more about Darwin is that he was a devout Christian who graduated from Christ’s College in Cambridge an ordained minister. “He studied natural theology, which is God’s presence in nature,” said Carman. “It wasn’t even his eventual insight into natural selection that shook his faith. It was the death of his young daughter Annie from scarlet fever.”

Bryson City resident Jamie Tidmore Burns, a senior biology major in the pre-professional program, also worked on the project. Burns said Darwin’s achievements are particularly extraordinary in the context of the time.  “Scientific belief and politics were mostly dictated by the teachings of the church, and many people were punished for questioning them,” said Burns. “Darwin and others like Darwin were really going against society and, in some ways, doing a very dangerous thing by questioning those teachings.”