The Tree of Life
The ‘Tree of Life’ image forms part of one of Darwin’s manuscript notebooks. The notebook in question is stored in a bespoke blue box, along with a second similar notebook, where Darwin develops his theory in terms of geographical distribution, the origin of humans, and classification by descent.
The manuscript content of the two notebooks has previously been digitised, including the Tree of Life sketch, and is available on the Cambridge Digital Library (Notebook B and Notebook C).
Darwin sketched out his ideas around an evolutionary tree in summer 1837, having recently returned from his trip around the world aboard HMS Beagle, more than two decades before he published a more fully developed tree of life in On the Origin of Species.
The notebooks are known as the Transmutation Notebooks given that Darwin theorised for the first time how species might ‘transmute’ from ancestral to later forms.
Cambridge University Library is home to one of the most significant collections of Darwin material anywhere in the world. Darwin’s archive and much of his personal library occupies more than 100 linear metres of shelving.
This includes 182 volumes, 189 archive boxes, and 170 plans and drawings. Among thousands of manuscripts, there are 8,000 letters alone. Darwin’s library includes 734 books and over 6,000 periodicals. The award-winning Darwin Correspondence Project is also based at the Library.
Although our digital copies do not replace the two missing physical notebooks, they do mean the intellectual content they hold remains available online to students, scholars and the public. In 1987, the notebooks were edited by a team of specialists to the very highest scholarly standards, with careful records of watermarks, paper, and ink.
Professor Stephen J Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “Cambridge University Library is one of the world’s great libraries and home to globally important collections, assembled and cared for over six centuries, and encompassing thousands of years of human thought and discovery.
“As a result of this appeal for help, we hope to locate the missing Darwin notebooks and restore them to their rightful place alongside the University Library’s other treasures, making them available to scholars and researchers in the centuries to come.”
Since 2017, Cambridge University Library has been awarded the Archive Service Accreditation from the National Archives – the UK quality standard which means our collections care meets clearly defined national standards relating to the care of its collections.
Angus O'Neill, Security Chair for the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, said: “Cambridge University Library is to be commended on coming forward so that the international book trade can help with the notebooks’ recovery. Items like this could never be sold openly, and we fervently hope that this publicity will lead to them getting back to where they belong.”
