A new collection of Darwiniana online

John van Wyhe has notified us of the above:

... you might be interested in a wonderful collection of Darwiniana focused on Darwin's life and the 1909 Darwin celebrations in Cambridge – 440 colour images in all. The J.C. Simpson Collection at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University seems to be little known but is full of treasures.

There are letters from all of Darwin's sons, as well as the little-known daughter 'Bessie', J. D. Hooker, a postcard from Ernst Haeckel, a note from A. R. Wallace which makes a very casual reference to his 1858 Ternate essay manuscript, a manuscript leaf of Darwin's Insectivorous plants (1875) and personal cheques signed by Darwin and Emma Darwin. There is a letter offering a photograph of Darwin that the Darwin family had never seen before. And there is the stuffed monkey that was suspended over Darwin’s head when he was given his honorary law degree at Cambridge in 1877.

Darwin Online

This is integrated with the rest of the manuscripts in Darwin Online – by
far the largest collection online and nearing the goal of complete transcription of the Darwin Archive in Cambridge. If you have not visited for a while, have a look.