Media Release | Feb. 7, 2007
UBC Library Digitizes Rare Darwin Letters, Now Available Online for the First Time
Fans and scholars of Charles Darwin are now able to see for the first time digitized images of rare and important letters online -- in time to celebrate Darwin Day on February 12 -- thanks to the efforts of University Archives at UBC Library.
University Archives has digitized 52 letters to and from Darwin (1809-1882), the pioneering evolutionary biologist and originator of the concept of natural selection. A link to the project is available at http://angel.library.ubc.ca.
The undertaking also dovetails with Darwin Day, an international celebration of the anniversary of Darwin’s February birthday. The digitized letters are from the historical collection at UBC Library’s Woodward Library Memorial Room.
“As far as we know, this project marks the first time that digital images of these Darwin letters are available online,” says Chris Hives, University Archivist.
The letters include correspondence between Darwin and John Scott Burdon Sanderson (1828-1905), involving research that Darwin and Burdon Sanderson conducted on the digestive powers and leaf movements of insect-eating plants.
In addition, UBC students are transcribing the digitized letters, and transcriptions will be added to the Archives site as they become available later this year.
“This project offers UBC Library the opportunity to contribute our small, relatively unknown but important collection of original Darwin correspondence to a much larger and growing initiative out of England to provide access to Darwin letters around the world,” says Hives.
Nine of the digitized letters belong to the Fox/Pearce (Darwin) Collection -- 1821-1884. This group was acquired in 1970 from Captain Christopher Pearce, a descendant of the Fox family (William Darwin Fox was Charles Darwin’s cousin).
Links to larger collections of digitized Darwin letters are also available on the University Archives Darwin site.
“UBC Library has numerous rare and unique collections that have attracted scholars from around the world to our campus,” says Hives.
“Digital technology provides a wonderful opportunity to unlock these rich resources and make them more widely available to a potentially much larger and diverse audience of researchers anywhere, anytime. In addition to the Darwin letters, the Library has recently digitized a collection of Florence Nightingale letters and an important collection of early Japanese maps.”
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