The Guardian newspaper reports that Charles Darwin’s library of books – all 404 of them – that he kept onboard the HMS Beagle are now online over at the Darwin Online Beagle Library project.
From the article:
The lost collection of books that kept Charles Darwin company aboard HMS Beagle and provided inspiration for his later works on evolution has been made publicly available for the first time today.
Hundreds of titles that filled the shelves of the ship’s library on Darwin’s five-year circumnavigation of the globe in the 1830s have been brought together and made freely available through the Darwin Online Beagle Library project.
Led by John van Wyhe, a historian of science at the National University of Singapore, a research team compiled digital copies of what they believe to be the complete set of 404 books, including thousands of stunning illustrations, that accompanied Darwin aboard HMS Beagle.
From Darwin Online:
The voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836) was one of the most important scientific expeditions in history. On board was the young naturalist Charles Darwin. His investigations would change science and the world forever. There was no sudden discovery on the Galapagos sparked by the finches as popular legend has it. Instead he intensively studied the geology, animals, plants and peoples of the lands visited. Along the way he made a number of striking discoveries, particularly in South America, which eventually led him to realize that living things must evolve over time. After his return home he formulated what he called “natural selection” to explain how living things adapt to a changing world. When he published his revolutionary On the Origin of Species in 1859, he began with the famous opening line “When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,’ as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts.” (p. 1)
As a research vessel HMS Beagle may not have had the internet, but she did have an impressive state-of-the-art library of about 400 volumes. The library was housed in book cases in the poop cabin at the stern of the ship, which was also Darwin’s cabin. Thus, Darwin lived and worked in the Beagle library for five years.
The library consisted of works that belonged to Captain FitzRoy and other officers on the ship. There was originally a catalogue which is not known to survive. So the contents of the library were long a mystery.
You can read the entire Guardian article HERE.
You can read more about reconstructing the HMS Beagle’s library, and read all of the books Darwin had access to HERE.