Appeal launched for Charles Darwin's Galapagos notebook

Tue, 11/24/2009 - 15:59 - NLN

Today, on the 150th anniversary of a book that changed the world – the first edition of On the Origin of Species was published on 24 November 1859 – an appeal is being launched to recover a priceless notebook, probably stolen more than 30 years ago, in which Charles Darwin jotted down observations which would shape the rest of his life.

The book was full of notes taken as Darwin recorded the unique wildlife of the Galapagos Islands in 1835. Temptingly pocket-sized, it was probably stolen in the late 1970s from the study table where he worked at Down House, near Biggin Hill in Kent, where he wrote Origin and all his later major works.

Fortunately the contents, including Darwin's first encounter with a giant Galapagos tortoise – "Met an immense turpin; took little notice of me" – were preserved on microfilm in 1969 and the public can now read them as English Heritage marks the anniversary by placing all 116,0000 words and 300 sketches and scribbles from Darwin's notebooks online.