Diaries of Charles Darwin’s wife have been published online

by Michael Cook on March 18, 2007
News

The diaries of Charles Darwin’s wife have been published online, giving an unparalleled insight into the day-to-day life of the world’s greatest naturalist.

Sixty pocket books are still in existence. They cover Emma Darwin’s life from 1824, when on January 1 the 16-year-old girl records that she “played at charades”, until her death in 1896.

“These books were found in a cardboard box in an old cupboard about 20 years ago,” said the director of Darwin Online, Dr John van Wyhe. “People weren’t really interested in the day-to-day Darwin then, just the Origin of Species.”

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This intimate record of Darwin’s daily life, known to only a handful of scholars at Cambridge university until now, is in such a fragile state that academics could only use microfiche copies. Now it can be read in facsimile all over the world.

Extract taken from;

Wife’s diaries shed light on Darwin by Richard Lea
Guardian Unlimited, Monday March 12, 2007

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