Megan ByrneThe Evolution Of Darwin
October 23rd 2006 05:21
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution should have included libraries evolving on the Internet because all of his known works are online now at The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online.
At Cambridge University, Dr. John van Wyhe, historian, is running the project that’s making roughly 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images accessible to anyone with an interest in the scientist and his evolution theory.
According to the BBC News, Dr. van Wyhe has devoted the last four years in a globe-wide search for copies of Darwin’s materials. “I write to lots of people all over the world to get hold of the texts for the project and I got a really positive reaction, because they all liked the idea of there being one big collection”.
The library contains reference works, contemporary reviews of Darwin’s books, as well as personal papers. Darwin Online features many previously unpublished and newly transcribed manuscripts, including a microfilm copy of a field notebook from his famous Beagle voyage to the Galapagos Islands, where detailed observations of the wildlife would later forge his scientific arguments. The original field book, still missing, was stolen sometime in the 1980s.
Other texts appearing online for the first time include the first editions of the Journal Of Researches (1839), The Descent Of Man (1871), The Zoology Of The Voyage Of HMS Beagle (1838-43) and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Origin Of Species.
The site contains about 50% of the materials that will be provided by 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.
Other websites providing uniquely important, complimentary Darwin materials: Darwin Correspondence Project and Darwin Digital Library of Evolution.
Charles Darwin
According to the BBC News, Dr. van Wyhe has devoted the last four years in a globe-wide search for copies of Darwin’s materials. “I write to lots of people all over the world to get hold of the texts for the project and I got a really positive reaction, because they all liked the idea of there being one big collection”.
The library contains reference works, contemporary reviews of Darwin’s books, as well as personal papers. Darwin Online features many previously unpublished and newly transcribed manuscripts, including a microfilm copy of a field notebook from his famous Beagle voyage to the Galapagos Islands, where detailed observations of the wildlife would later forge his scientific arguments. The original field book, still missing, was stolen sometime in the 1980s.
Other texts appearing online for the first time include the first editions of the Journal Of Researches (1839), The Descent Of Man (1871), The Zoology Of The Voyage Of HMS Beagle (1838-43) and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Origin Of Species.
The site contains about 50% of the materials that will be provided by 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.
Other websites providing uniquely important, complimentary Darwin materials: Darwin Correspondence Project and Darwin Digital Library of Evolution.
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