00:00I'm at the Erasmus Darwin House Museum and with me is curator Alex Chong. Alex, Erasmus Darwin, I mean he's,
00:08a lot of people today don't seem to know much about him which is quite shocking really because of his
00:12knowledge. I mean he was an absolute genius. What sort of subjects did he cover?
00:18Well yeah, you're quite right. He was very ahead of his time and very progressive looking particularly in terms of
00:24things to do with female education for example. He was also a great abolitionist and a dear friend and family
00:32doctor of the Wedgwoods as well.
00:33Yeah, I mean it's absolutely amazing. I mean he's a poet of course, he wrote lots of fantastic. The interesting
00:38thing I'm fascinated about him is he wrote science poetry. I mean he wrote about what we now call a
00:44black hole. I mean why did he express himself in poetry?
00:49He was just a very curious thinker and really found that form to work well for him. You know, he
00:59was great in thinking outside of the box for his time really.
01:03I mean he invented the concept of the multi-mirror telescope which we use now on the Webb telescope.
01:09He came up with the concept of a hydrogen combustion engine.
01:13I mean hydrogen had only been discovered just a few years before.
01:18To your mind as curator of the museum, what do you think he gives to a modern age?
01:24Oh wow, really good question. I suppose in many respects he's still a really relevant person to so many audiences
01:32today.
01:33And should be particularly, which is why we encourage people to come and visit and see all these amazing things
01:38he was thinking about.
01:40As I've said, there are lots of things I think in our current times that people can really relate to,
01:45particularly around his thinking towards different things like the slave trade as well.
01:51So that's, you know, a lot of relevance there for our visitors today and like I've said, a really curious,
01:57great mind.
01:58And our job here at the museum is to help share those stories and bring that to life really for
02:04people and we hope to look after it, protect it and care for it for people to come and see
02:09us.
02:09Do you have many public events then to tie in with these ideas?
02:13We do, yes. So we have lots of lectures and series of talks that we host at the museum.
02:19We also do lots of fun things like jigsaw sales, which are always really popular, and science and craft events
02:26as well for our family visitors.
02:28And on a personal level, what attracts you to Erasmus Darwin?
02:31I think because he thought outside of the box, he wasn't pigeonholed into just one thing.
02:39And I just love the idea of thinking of all these great minds coming here with a full moon to
02:44discuss all these brilliant ideas, you know.
02:47Alex, you have one of the best jobs in the world being curator of this thing.
02:51So come on, take a visit to Erasmus Darwin Museum.
02:54You're going to learn a lot about who I believe is the greatest Britain of the millennium.
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