Darwin Manuscript Project

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IntroductionThe objective of this project is to perform archival research leading to online textual editions of two important segments of the manuscript material left by Charles Darwin. The first segment, the 'Origins of the Origin', forms a part of Darwin's Scientific Notes and comprises those notebooks, notes and drafts used by Darwin in developing and writing the Origin of Species. The second segment, Darwin's Abstracts, forms a part of Darwin's Marginalia and Reading Notes and comprises the complete collection of Darwin's reading notes abstracted from the literature of natural history. These materials each add a coherent and original piece to our understanding of Darwin's work as a scientist and to his integration with the scientific community. The manuscripts will form part of the Darwin Manuscript Project and will be published online at the Darwin Digital Library of Evolution, a website sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History.Intellectual MeritThe intellectual merit of the 'Origins of the Origin' manuscripts is that they constitute the full record of the growth of Darwin's theory of descent by natural selection up to its first publication in 1859. Voluminous and conceptually significant sections of that record have hitherto remained unpublished, while some published sections have been inadequately edited. The intellectual merit of 'Darwin's Abstracts' is that they constitute and reveal Darwin's most systematic mode of engagement as a reader of the scientific literature, an engagement that spanned his entire post-Beagle career and covered the full range of topics that he mined for their relevance to the theory of evolution.Broader ImpactsAs a de novo online project, perhaps the broadest impact of publishing these materials is that a treasure trove of rich and generally unexplored Darwin materials will be made accessible to an enormously widened audience of potential interpreters, which includes scholars, teachers, and students. The general public has little appreciation of the diverse ways in which scientists work to develop original knowledge. These materials show Darwin hard at work extracting information, conducting experiments, refining and restructuring the expression of his ideas and always working as part of a community of knowledge. The impact of publishing these materials to high editorial standards and yet in this public, image-rich way is that they provide a means to deepen the public grasp of scientific practice.