Rare Books in the Press: Darwins Personal Library Put Online
Charles Darwin’s personal scientific library comprised 1480 books, of which 730 contain research notes in their margin. This magnificent collection has now been digitised by the Cambridge University Library in cooperation with the Darwin Manuscripts Project at the American Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
“The Darwin collections are among the most important and popular held within Cambridge University Library”, says Anne Jarvis. “While there has been much focus on his manuscripts and correspondence, his library hasn’t always received the attention it deserves – for it is as he engaged with the ideas and theories of others that his own thinking evolved.” And further: “The pages of Darwin’s Library, smothered as they are in his tantalizing scrawl, give us a direct view of the great Darwinian intellectual machine in action. With the Charles Darwin Library online, now everyone can retrace how Darwin systematically used reading to advance his science.”