The New York Academy of Sciences commissioned American Sculptor William Couper ( 1853-1942) to create a bronze bust of Darwin for $1000. The completed work was unveiled at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) for the opening of it's "Darwin Hall of Invertebrate Zoology" on the centenary of Darwin's Birth: 12th Feb 1909.
Couper prepared this copy so that it could be presented to Christ's College by an American delegation at the Darwin Centenary celebrations in June 1909. The Couper bust was used as a model for a similar bronze erected on the Galapagos Islands 1935
