Thousands of personal letters by 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin, including an unpublished account of watching his beloved daughter-in-law die an agonising death in childbirth, will be released to the public online for the first time.
The Cambridge University project will begin with a correspondence – some 1,400 letters – with his closest friend, the botanist Joseph Hooker.
It was to him that a devastated Darwin wrote in 1876: “I am sure you will pity us, when you hear that Amy was seized with convulsion which lasted for several hours, she then sunk into a stupor and I saw her expire at 7 o’clock this morning.”
Digitising the historic papers of the celebrated British naturalist best known for his theory of evolution, follows the university’s online success with the archive of another scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, which has attracted millions of hits worldwide, The Independent reported.