Emily Chan
Over the course of his life, the famed English naturalist Charles Darwin kept a vast personal library with books on subjects ranging from art to philosophy.
On February 12, which was the 215th anniversary of Darwin’s birthday, it was announced that his personal library was published and made available to the public for the first time ever.
After almost two decades of meticulous, painstaking work, researchers were able to compile a 300-page catalog detailing 7,400 titles across 13,000 items that Darwin kept in his possession, including journals, pamphlets, and reviews. Readers may access these texts in the digital anthology “The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online.”
Darwin was most known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His theory of evolution is described in his 1859 treatise On the Origin of Species, which proposes that all species of life descended from a common ancestor and were shaped for survival through natural selection.
The proposition is now generally accepted and considered a key concept in science that has changed the world.
In addition to his own publications, Darwin had an array of volumes on various subjects. His shelves were lined with books on biology, geology, finance, farming, travel, psychology, history, philosophy, religion, and cures for chronic diseases, as well as atlases.
His collection also featured book sections and newspaper clippings with strange titles, such as “The anatomy of a four-legged chicken” and “The Hateful or Colorado Grasshopper.”
Furthermore, an auction sales record reveals that Darwin won an article dating back to 1826 by ornithologist James John Audobon.
It was titled “Account of the habits of the Turkey Buzzard (Vultura aura), particularly with the view of exploding the opinion generally entertained of its extraordinary power of smelling.”
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