Robert Chambers. Historical portrait of Scottish naturalist and author Robert Chambers (1802-1871). A self-taught scientist and prolific writer, he produced numerous literary, historical and scient- ific works, many based on personal research. His anonymously-published history of the Earth, the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), caused controversy by its treatment of the origins of humankind. Although much of the book's basic science was inaccurate, its description of a progressive evolution of life prepared the public for the work of Darwin. In collaboration with his brother William, he established a publishing company and the Chamber's encyclopaedia.