The largest release of famed biologist Charles Darwin"s papers is coming online to darwin-online.org.uk, comprising some 20,000 items and 90,000 images, according to the organizers from Cambridge University Library which holds all the Darwin papers. The collection includes thousands of notes and drafts of his scientific writings, notes from the voyage of the Beagle when he began to formulate his controversial theory of evolution, and his first recorded doubts about the permanence of species; among them is his first draft of "On The Origin Of Species". It also contains photographs of Darwin and his family, newspaper clippings, reviews of his books and much more.
"This release makes his private papers, mountains of notes, experiments, and research behind his world-changing publications available to the world for free," said John van Wyhe, director of the project. "His publications have always been available in the public sphere - but these papers have until now only been accessible to scholars."