WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, LIN KRISTENSEN
For the first time in history, Charles Darwin’s scribbled notes contained within the pages of books from his library are available—online and free—to the general public.
At the time of his death in 1882, Darwin’s home held nearly 1,500 books, periodicals, and pamphlets, a collection now known as Darwin’s Library. In half of these, he diligently scribbled notes, crossed out lines, and appended notes on slips of paper. “The chief interest of the Darwin books lies in the pencil notes scribbled on their pages, or written on scraps of paper and pinned to the last page,” Darwin’s son Francis said in 1908.
In April, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) digitized and published online 330 of the most heavily annotated resources in Darwin’s library, ScienceNOW reports. ...
