Niles Eldredge - Darwin Digital Library

Darwin Digital Library

The Research Library at the American Museum of Natural History has launched the Darwin Digital Library of Evolution under the editorial leadership of noted Darwin historian Dr. David Kohn.

The Darwin Digital Library of Evolution, (DDL), features the broadest and most complete collection ever assembled of specimens, artifacts, original manuscripts, and memorabilia related to Darwin. The DDL, is the first Web site to feature a broad set of landmark publications, manuscripts, and other materials essential to the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This new remarkable resource offers a greater, deeper understanding of Darwin and his theories, clarifies the intellectual framework supporting evolutionary theory, and optimizes public access to a broad spectrum of material of central importance to Darwin’s theory of evolution.

For the Darwin Digital Library of Evolution, David Kohn, Niles Eldredge and Tom Moritz (AMNH librarian) have drawn from documents and other published and unpublished material in the Museum’s collections and those of peer institutions. The Museum then digitized relevant, selected works associated with Darwin and with the development of evolutionary theory. The DDL includes Darwin’s chief works, including American, British, and international editions of various titles such as The Origin of Species and Natural Selection; works by Darwin’s intellectual descendents such as Thomas Huxley, Asa Gray, and Herbert Spencer; a well-balanced selection of works exploring critiques of and responses to evolutionary theory; and works that represent key intellectual influences on Darwin.

The DDL also incorporates Dr. Kohn’s Darwin Manuscripts Project, which provides scholarly transcriptions of Darwin's voluminous scientific notes, notebooks, and drafts, many of which have never been published before. As an integral part of the DDL, the Darwin Manuscripts Project contributes significantly to global efforts to distribute, free of charge to diverse audiences, scientific information about Darwin’s work that is currently scattered or inaccessible. In addition, other unpublished resources will be made available, including unpublished annotations of Darwin’s writing by his distinguished contemporaries including Richard Owen, Huxley, and Gray.

The new online accessibility of all these materials, in conjunction with the Darwin exhibition, significantly advances efforts to distribute scientific information on Darwin’s evolutionary theory and will be of enormous assistance to scholars and educators with ongoing research and teaching. The DDL also will serve as a resource for history and biology curricula focusing on Darwin and evolutionary theory. Special efforts were made to match the DDL’s resources to primary and secondary school curriculum requirements.

For more on my thoughts on Darwin’s life and work, please see The Darwin Blogs on this website.