Digitalising Darwin
Charles Darwin 1802 – 1882 was a famous English Naturalist and geologist whose famous work included On the Origin of Species a piece of work that changed the worlds outlook on the creation of species; Darwin provided scientific evidence that all species evolved over time from common ancestors through the process of natural selection. The Origin of Species provided key understanding of the biology of life and the concept of diversity, Darwin's research and results also challenged the Church's theory regarding the creation of man and great controversy arose over the theory that man had in fact evolved from an ape.
There is currently a Project containing the largest collection of Darwin's letters composed during his life; many of which sent during his journey aboard the H.M.S Bugle containing great reference to his amazing discoveries and discussing his theories of evolution long before he published On The Origin of Species. The Darwin Correspondence Project has digitised over 14,500 letters that Darwin exchanged with around 200 different correspondents with the earliest letter dated when Darwin was the young age of 12.
The Darwin Correspondence Project was originally founded in 1974, with the intention to locate, research and publicise summaries of all correspondence as written by Darwin, this has since been expanded to included communication sent to Darwin himself, to date the Project's team has located 14,500 letters from around the world, 9000 coming from Cambridge University and the rest from libraries, archives and private collectors from around the world, however new letters are continually being discovered.
The digital database is organised into a chronological order by the date of the letter, along with this are short biographies on all printed sources. The letters are further categorised into the type of correspondence it is for example; original letters, published letters, drafts and third party letters. Each letter is displayed with a brief summary of the letter, date of correspondence, the actual letter contents, the postmark and footnotes explaining the references and people in the letter.
The Darwin Project is an innovation, by digitally archiving all the documents the Project has amassed the world's largest collection of Darwin documents in digital format, further to this the advantages to having the documents in digital form allows fans and enthusiasts from around the world to have the access to documents usually hidden away in a secure archive. The team's clever document management has allowed for an easy to use reference point for Darwin, and no doubt many people will benefit from this online facility.
The Darwin Correspondence Project used a form of digital archiving; a key method of managing sensitive documents, organising them into one database and regulating who has access to them. DAS-Scotland are a Scottish company who specialise in the digital archiving of sensitive documents and document management.
There is currently a Project containing the largest collection of Darwin's letters composed during his life; many of which sent during his journey aboard the H.M.S Bugle containing great reference to his amazing discoveries and discussing his theories of evolution long before he published On The Origin of Species. The Darwin Correspondence Project has digitised over 14,500 letters that Darwin exchanged with around 200 different correspondents with the earliest letter dated when Darwin was the young age of 12.
The Darwin Correspondence Project was originally founded in 1974, with the intention to locate, research and publicise summaries of all correspondence as written by Darwin, this has since been expanded to included communication sent to Darwin himself, to date the Project's team has located 14,500 letters from around the world, 9000 coming from Cambridge University and the rest from libraries, archives and private collectors from around the world, however new letters are continually being discovered.
The digital database is organised into a chronological order by the date of the letter, along with this are short biographies on all printed sources. The letters are further categorised into the type of correspondence it is for example; original letters, published letters, drafts and third party letters. Each letter is displayed with a brief summary of the letter, date of correspondence, the actual letter contents, the postmark and footnotes explaining the references and people in the letter.
The Darwin Project is an innovation, by digitally archiving all the documents the Project has amassed the world's largest collection of Darwin documents in digital format, further to this the advantages to having the documents in digital form allows fans and enthusiasts from around the world to have the access to documents usually hidden away in a secure archive. The team's clever document management has allowed for an easy to use reference point for Darwin, and no doubt many people will benefit from this online facility.
The Darwin Correspondence Project used a form of digital archiving; a key method of managing sensitive documents, organising them into one database and regulating who has access to them. DAS-Scotland are a Scottish company who specialise in the digital archiving of sensitive documents and document management.
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