The BBC reports that Charles Darwin’s works are being published online at Darwin Online (free of charge).
The project run by Cambridge University has digitised some 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images of original publications – all of it searchable.
[…]
“The idea is to make these important works as accessible as possible; some people can only get at Darwin that way,” said Dr John van Wyhe, the project’s director.
Dr van Wyhe has spent the past four years searching the globe for copies of Darwin’s own materials, and works written about the naturalist and his breakthrough ideas on natural selection.
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These include a remarkable field notebook from his famous Beagle voyage to the Galapagos Islands, where detailed observations of the wildlife would later forge his scientific arguments.
[…]
Other texts appearing online for the first time include the first editions of the Journal Of Researches (1839), The Descent Of Man (1871), The Zoology Of The Voyage Of HMS Beagle (1838-43) and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Origin Of Species, the pivotal tome that elucidated his thoughts on evolution.
[…]
At the moment the site contains about 50% of the materials that will be provided by 2009, the bicentenary of the naturalist’s birth.
A great Internet initiative as far as I am concerned. All great works produced by mankind should be available to as many people as possible. By publishing Darwin’s works, books, notes, etc. online, more people than ever before will have easy access to his important works and, by reading it / studying it, will be able to expand their knowledge.
Again: this is the website. I checked it out myself: it only worked the third time I tried: it seems to be off- and then online again every now and then: not very stable, at least not today. It you want to check it out, my advice is to try and try again -> the site does work / the URL is correct.
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