In honor of Charles Darwin’s 215th birthday on February 12, an online 300-page catalog of the famed British naturalist’s vast personal library has been released online. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online contains a list of the 7,400 titles and about 85 percent of the collection were previously unknown or unpublished. The items include journals, books, and pamphlets that all belonged to Darwin during his lifetime. Previously, only 15 percent of his vast collection had been readily available online, but this new collection contains 9,300 links to copies of the works all freely available. You can explore the catalog here.
[Related: Letters From Charles Darwin.]
“This unprecedentedly detailed view of Darwin’s complete library allows one to appreciate more than ever that he was not an isolated figure working alone but an expert of his time building on the sophisticated science and studies and other knowledge of thousands of people,” John van Wyhe, a science historian at the National University of Singapore who led the project, said in a statement. “Indeed, the size and range of works in the library makes manifest the extraordinary extent of Darwin’s research into the work of others.”
Darwin’s ‘eclectic’ collection
Most of the books and writings are scientific, especially volumes on biology and geology. However, Darwin’s library also included works about his various other interests–farming, animal breeding and behavior, geographical distribution, psychology, philosophy, religion, art, history, travel, and language. Most of the material is written in English, but close to half are written in German, French, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, and Latin.
A coffee table book published in 1872 that includes photographs of various artworks called Sun Pictures is one of the books that were not previously known to be in Darwin’s vast library. He also had a copy of Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial…
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