Stolen items being surreptitiously returned is one of our favorite types of stories here at IFLScience, and one of our favorites this week came from Cambridge University Library in the United Kingdom, where someone slipped back some stolen notebooks previously belonging to Charles Darwin. The near-inexpensive volumes (said to be worth millions) were delivered in a pink gift bag that also contained an envelope containing a strange note addressed to the librarian. The two volumes that had been wrapped in clingfilm and arranged into boxes were inside the envelope. On one of the two pages, Darwin’s 1837 “Tree of Life” sketch begins with the words “I think” before the scientist draws a diagrammatic representation of related species within a genus.
Following a picture of the library’s Special Holdings Strong Rooms, where their most important collections are stored, the notebooks were taken for the first time between 2000 and 2001. Following the filming, a routine check in January found that a tiny box holding Darwin’s two notebooks had gone missing. In early 2020, new efforts to find it were undertaken, including fingerprint examinations of the Darwin Archive, which has roughly 189 boxes. However, their whereabouts remained unknown, and it was determined that they had been stolen.
With the cooperation of Cambridgeshire Police and Interpol, Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner launched an international call for information after confirmation of the theft. Perhaps feeling the pressure, their anonymous custodian returned the two books with a message fifteen months later. The priceless notebooks returned from their journeys in good shape, with no signs of damage since they were last in the library’s care. On March 9, 2022, they were wrapped in cling film and deposited in a bright pink gift bag on the floor outside the Librarian’s office.
In a statement, Gardner, who became Cambridge University Librarian in 2017, said, “My sense of relief at the notebooks’ safe recovery is profound and nearly impossible to adequately explain.” “I was grieved, like so many others around the world, to learn of their loss, and my delight upon their return is enormous.” With the holiday officially ended, the books will return to work as part of a presentation in an upcoming exhibition called Darwin in Conversation, which will open on July 9.
Gardener said, “The main goal of our public plea was to have the manuscripts returned to our safekeeping, and I am delighted to have had such a fortunate outcome in such a short period of time.” “The notebooks can now reclaim their appropriate place in the Darwin Archive at Cambridge, among the archives of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Stephen Hawking, at the heart of the nation’s cultural and scientific history.”
