In the introduction, Darwin alludes to Alfred Russel Wallace and the Linnean Society:
In 1858 [Alfred Russel Wallace] sent me a memoir on this subject, with a request that I would forward it to Sir Charles Lyell, who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it is published in the third volume of the Journal of that society.
Wallace was another scientist who, based on his own research, also came to the conclusion that evolution occurred through natural selection. Darwin wrote this introduction in 1859, and he recalls receiving a paper from Wallace outlining his agreement. At Wallace's urging, Darwin really did send both Wallace's paper and one of his own to Sir Charles Lyell, another prominent scientist. Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker, yet another prominent scientist, sponsored the two papers at a conference held by the Linnean Society of London. This society, named for Charles Linnaeus (the scientist who created the "binomial nomenclature" system we still use today for taxonomy), was founded in the 18th century. It still exists. It is an organization for scientists focused on natural history to present their findings and debate ideas. Darwin and Wallace's papers led to a watershed moment for the society, as the society's backing helped Darwin's ideas take off.
The Linnean Society is ostensibly invested in natural history and not in social politics, but Darwin's casual reference to it and to the people involved in popularizing his theory makes clear that science never happens in a social vacuum. In Darwin's case, it happened in the company of men who could afford an elite education. While he deserves much of the credit he receives for changing the course of biology, it is important to notice that things might have been different if he had belonged to a different set of social categories. For instance, women were not allowed to join the Linnean Society until 1904. The fact that Darwin was trying to persuade primarily wealthy white men can help explain his frequent use of economic and war metaphors when describing natural selection. These metaphors, which in turn suggest that society is brutal because nature is brutal, have allowed Darwin's theory to be used to justify racism, ableism and other forms of discrimination. If Darwin were responsible to a more diverse audience, it is possible to imagine that his theory's social applications may have played out differently.
