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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Debora, post: 11254279, member: 1476&quot;]Apologies for the AI but this may be helpful:</p><p><br /></p><p>Several prominent lecture series and individual lectures on evolutionary thought took place in the United States during the 1880s, playing a crucial role in the public and academic acceptance of the theory. Key figures included </p><p>Alfred Russel Wallace, John Fiske, and Thomas Henry Huxley. </p><p><br /></p><p>Key Lecture Series and Lecturers</p><ul> <li>Alfred Russel Wallace&#039;s US Tour (1886-1887): Wallace, the co-discoverer of natural selection, conducted a ten-month, transcontinental lecture tour across the United States. He lectured extensively on &quot;Darwinism&quot; (his specific, strict selectionist view), biogeography, and spiritualism, in cities including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Kansas City, and San Francisco. His lectures were well-received and helped popularize evolutionary theory among the American public and scientific communities. The material from these lectures was later incorporated into his book, <i>Darwinism</i> (1889).</li> <li>John Fiske&#039;s Lectures: A philosopher and historian, John Fiske was a very popular public lecturer known for reconciling science and Christianity through the lens of evolution. He argued that the U.S. represented the culmination of a historical evolution toward a free democratic republic, a theme in his popular American history lectures in 1879. His ability to clearly explain complex ideas, including the compatibility of theistic belief and the evolutionary process, made him a prominent voice in the 1880s.</li> <li>Thomas Henry Huxley&#039;s Lectures: Though his most famous lectures in the U.S. took place in New York in 1876, Thomas Henry Huxley, &quot;Darwin&#039;s Bulldog,&quot; significantly influenced the American understanding of evolution. During these lectures, he presented fossil evidence, specifically the horse series shown to him by American paleontologist O.C. Marsh, to argue that evolution was no longer a speculation but a &quot;statement of historical fact&quot;. The impact of these lectures carried well into the 1880s as the ideas were disseminated and debated.</li> <li>University and Seminary Lectures: Evolutionary thought was also a subject of university and theological seminary lectures. Asa Gray, a Harvard botanist and a Christian who supported a form of theistic evolution, delivered lectures at the Yale College Theological School in 1880, later published as <i>Natural Science and Religion: Two Lectures</i>. Other figures associated with American naturalism, such as the Neo-Lamarckians (e.g., Alpheus Hyatt, Edward Drinker Cope), presented their own non-Darwinian evolutionary ideas in scientific circles and public forums during this period. </li> </ul><p>These lectures, both by prominent figures and in academic settings, demonstrate that by the 1880s, evolution was a mainstream topic in American scientific and public discourse, with ongoing discussions about its mechanisms, implications for humanity, and relationship with religious faith.</p><p><br /></p><p>Debora[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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