Introduction to Darwin Online

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online (or Darwin Online) began in 2002 to assemble in one scholarly website all of Darwin’s published writings and unpublished papers. It does not cover his unpublished letters which were already the focus of the Darwin Correspondence Project.

Darwin Online is by far the largest Darwin publication in history. It contains over 43,000 pages of searchable text and 150,000 electronic images. This site contains 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 works reproduced here were lent by helpful institutions and individuals. Some of the books are worth over £100,000 ($196,800), 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 in c. 20,000 items in c. 90,000 images, thanks to the kind permission of Cambridge University Library.

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 millions of readers and from every country in the world.

All of Darwin’s unpublished manuscripts are being scanned, transcribed or both. All previously published manuscript transcriptions are included (except where reproduction permission could not be obtained). Overall the site provides a vast amount of material on and by Darwin never before seen on the internet or never reproduced before in any form.

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. The site includes over 40,000 pages of searchable text and 130,000 images. 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). Introduction to the Freeman bibliographical database. See also the separate bibliography of works cited on Darwin Online which is also the first bibliography of the works cited in Darwin’s shorter publications.

• Translations. Darwin’s works are also available in Danish, German, Norwegian and Russian. More languages forthcoming. See Publications.

• Many of the books are signed by Darwin or belonged to his family: Origin, Life of Erasmus Darwin, Coral reefs, Variation or Flowers.

• Many never before published transcriptions of Darwin’s handwritten manuscripts, such as the field notebook used on the Galapagos islands or his Beagle animal notes. Darwin Online contains thousands of Darwin manuscripts, more than have ever been available before to the public.

• The largest union catalogue of Darwin’s many handwritten manuscripts and private papers ever assembled (based primarily on the Cambridge University Library catalogue by Nick Gill). Introduction to the manuscript catalogue.

A virtual bookshelf of the works of Charles Darwin. Clicking each book will open it.