Features of Darwin Online

This page lists the distinguishing features of Darwin Online - the largest ever publication on the great English naturalist and author of the Origin of species Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and probably the most comprehensive scholarly website on any historical figure.

• The first complete collection of all Darwin's publications. Many have never been reproduced and almost all appear online for the first time. The site includes over 217,000 pages of searchable text and 330,000 images. See Publications. Darwin's shorter publications are fully edited here for the first time.

• Each text is absolutely complete, nothing is omitted (as so often with online texts). The digitizations on Darwin Online begin with the spine of the book and include every page without exception, including end pages and publishers' advertizements. It's as close to holding the book in one's hand as the internet can be.

• The site is fully searchable. Searches can be limited by name, date, title and so forth. Search

• Both the fully formatted electronic text and images of the original document are provided. They can be viewed side-by-side. Example. Darwin's works are also provided in PDF format for downloading and printing.

• Thousands ofnever before published transcriptions of Darwin's handwritten manuscripts, such as the field notebook used on the Galapagos islands or his Beagle animal notes. Darwin Online contains more Darwin manuscripts than have ever been available before to the public. Click here.

• The most comprehensive bibliography of works written by Darwin ever published. Search page for the bibliography. See also the separate bibliography of works cited on Darwin Online which is also the first ever bibliography of the works cited in Darwin's shorter publications.

• The largest catalogue of Darwin's many handwritten manuscripts and private papers ever assembled. Search page for the manuscript catalogue.

• Translations. Darwin's works are also available in Danish, German, Norwegian and Russian. More languages forthcoming. See Publications.

• Many of the books are signed by Darwin or belonged to his family: Origin, Life of Erasmus Darwin, Coral reefs, Variation or Flowers.

• Illustrations in Darwin Online - a collection of overviews of over 1000 diagrams, maps and photographs.

• Added value: works by others which are particularly relevant to studying and understanding Darwin and his context are also provided, such as contemporary reviews of his books or obituaries and recollections of Darwin. Darwin Online also contains the most complete list ever published of scientific descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens by other scientists. See Supplementary Works.

• The complete Beagle library has been reconstructed and put online.

• The Complete Library of Charles Darwin has been reconstructed and put online.

• Page counters on every page. Every document in Darwin Online displays its own hit counter, allowing one to see how often each has been accessed.

• It's completely free of charge