'Stolen' Charles Darwin notebooks left on library floor in pink gift bag

[gary]

In a report from the BBC :-

Originally Posted by By Rebecca Jones Arts correspondent, BBC News, 5 April 2022

Two "stolen" notebooks written by Charles Darwin have been mysteriously returned to Cambridge University, 22 years after they were last seen.

The small leather-bound books are worth many millions of pounds and include the scientist's "tree of life" sketch.

Their return comes 15 months after the BBC first highlighted they had gone missing and the library launched a worldwide appeal to find them.

...

The notepads date from the late 1830s after Darwin had returned from the Galapagos Islands. On one page, he drew a spindly sketch of a tree, which helped inspire his theory of evolution and more than 20 years later would become a central theory in his groundbreaking work On the Origin of Species.

"The theory of natural selection and evolution is probably the single most important theory in the life and earth environmental sciences and these are the notebooks in which that theory was put together," says Jim Secord, emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University.

"They're some of the most remarkable documents in the whole history of science."

Story here :-
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60980288

[JA]

Thx Gary.

Now watch them go through the Library surveillance video

Best
JA

[Steffen]

When I was a teenager I used to “steal” books from the library, too. It was mostly reference books on chemistry, physics and electrical engineering, where the alotted lending time of two weeks just wasn’t enough. One could return borrowed books after two weeks and ask for an extension, but I didn’t have a car and the library was a pretty far way away, so this wasn’t practical for me

When I moved out of town I returned all the books to the library and put them back on the shelves where they belonged 🙂

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by JA

Thx Gary.

Now watch them go through the Library surveillance video

Best
JA

There wasn't any CCTV in place when the books were stolen
20 years ago.
But they may get who left them?
Quote)
Security cameras may eventually provide some clues. Although there was no CCTV in place on the landing where the gift bag was left last month, there are cameras outside the building monitoring the front and back of the library as well as the specialist reading rooms and the vaults inside.

"We have passed the CCTV that we have available to the police," says Dr Gardner. "That's a matter for their live investigation."

Also who left them may have not been the person who took them
in the first place.
Good to see them back though
Cheers

[leon]

Once many years ago I borrowed a Book from the Ballarat Library called The Sun by Patrick Moore, first published in 1968, I know this as I still have it, and have it on my desk whilst i type this.

As the story goes when I did borrow it i had just forgotten to return it and time marched on until last year some 40 plus years later, it surfaced somewhere in my house lost for so long.

I did actually take it back to the Library and the chap over the counter just laughed and said, "Mate it has been out of the system for that long you may as well keep it", and handed it to me with a big grin.

He then said at 5 cents for each day overdue it would have cost you $730.00 in fines, enjoy.

A true story.

Leon

I

[xelasnave]

Clearly you must do the right thing Leon and pay the fine.
Alex

[leon]

Of Coarse Alex, I have to set a Go Fund Me Page first.

Leon