November 24, 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species by Natural Selection and a reminder that all (or most) of Darwin’s writings are online at http://darwin-online.org.uk/. By the way, the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History’s exhibit on Darwin is still on display, including including a very rare first edition!
Online since 2002, The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online (or Darwin Online) is the largest and most widely consulted edition of the writings of Darwin ever published. More copies of Darwin’s works have been downloaded from Darwin Online than have been printed by all publishers combined.
This website contains over 87,000 pages of searchable text and 207,000 electronic images, at least one exemplar of all known Darwin publications, reproduced to the highest scholarly standards, both as searchable text and electronic images of the originals. The majority of these have been edited and annotated for the first time with thousands of original editorial notes.
Darwin’s unpublished letters are the focus of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (1985-).
The works reproduced here were lent by helpful institutions and individuals. Some of the books are worth over £100,000 ($200,000), which means that few libraries can afford to collect all of Darwin’s works.
The site also provides the largest collection of Darwin’s private papers ever published: c. 20,000 items in c. 100,000 images, thanks to the kind permission of Cambridge University Library. Thus Darwin Online makes available not only Darwin’s published science, but the notes and data collected to create it.
The pilot website, The writings of Charles Darwin on the web (2002-6), was replaced in October 2006 with the launch of this website. The launch became an international media sensation—reported on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet, reaching an estimated 400 million people. The site was swamped with millions of hits in the first 48 hours. Since then the site has been accessed by tens of millions of readers and from every country in the world.
All of Darwin’s unpublished manuscripts are being scanned, transcribed or both, if reproduction permission can be obtained. All previously published manuscript transcriptions are included (except where reproduction permission could not be obtained). Overall the site provides the world’s largest collection of material on and by Darwin- almost all of it online only here.
The distinguishing features and innovations on Darwin Online are outlined below:
• The first complete collection of all Darwin’s publications. Many have never been reproduced and almost all appear online for the first time, including many newly discovered items. See Publications.
• Each text is absolutely complete, nothing is omitted (as so often with online texts). The digitizations on Darwin Online begin with the spine of the book and include every page without exception, including end pages and publishers’ advertizements.
• Both fully formatted electronic text and images of the original document are provided. These can be viewed side-by-side.Example. Darwin’s works are also provided in PDF format for downloading and printing.
• The most comprehensive bibliography of works written by Darwin ever published (building on the work of R. B. Freeman): theFreeman bibliographical database. See also the separate bibliography of works cited on Darwin Online which is the first bibliography of the works cited in Darwin’s shorter publications.
• Translations. Darwin’s works are also available in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Swedish. More languages forthcoming – donations welcome. See translations.
• Many of the books are signed by Darwin or belonged to his family: Francis Darwin’s annotated copy of Origin, Origin, Life of Erasmus Darwin, Coral reefs or Flowers.
• The largest collection of Darwin’s manuscripts and private papers ever published. Click here. Many never before published transcriptions, such as the field notebook used on the Galapagos islands or his Beagle animal notes and his student bills from Christ’s College, Cambridge.
• The largest union catalogue of Darwin’s many handwritten manuscripts and private papers ever assembled (based primarily on theCambridge University Library catalogue by Nick Gill) – but including twenty cooperative institutions around the world. Manuscript catalogue.
An extract from Darwin’s barnacle notes.• Added value: Supplementary Works by others which are relevant to studying and understanding Darwin and his context are also provided, such as contemporary reviews of his books (the largest collection ever published) or obituaries and recollections of Darwin (again the largest collection ever published).
Darwin Online also contains the most complete list ever published of scientific descriptions of Darwin’s Beagle specimens by other scientists. See specimens.• New editorial introductions are being written to help readers understand Darwin’s work and context. All of Darwin’s shorter publications, the majority of his published items, have been edited and annotated here for the first time.
• New items are still being discovered and added to the site as well as further editions and translations when copies of the originals become available. These and other newly added materials are listed on the what’s new page — the site is updated almost daily.
• Although Darwin Online is a scholarly resource, jargon and unhelpful abbreviations have been avoided and a major works page provides an accessible overview.
• Audio Darwin: Darwin’s works available as free mp3 downloads for the blind, vision impaired and audio book readers.
• The historical works and database are fully searchable. Searches can be limited by name, date, title and so forth, in addition to a powerful battery of advanced search options. See Search and Search help.
• Page counters on every page. Every document in Darwin Online displays its own hit counter, allowing one to see how often each has been accessed.
• It’s completely free of charge!
