Darwin's Stolen Notebooks

The two small notebooks, catalogued as DAR 121 and DAR 122, are among the most important documents in the history of science. In Notebook B (DAR 121), written in mid-1837 shortly after the Beagle voyage, Darwin first sketched a branching tree diagram with the words "I think" above it — the foundational image of evolutionary theory. Notebook C contains further speculations on transmutation, heredity, and the mechanisms of species change, composed while Darwin was secretly developing the theory he would not publish for another 20 years. The notebooks were last recorded during a routine photographic session at Cambridge University Library around 2000. When librarians went to retrieve them in 2020, they discovered the notebooks were missing and had been for roughly two decades. Initially assumed to have been misshelved in the library's vast collections, a comprehensive search involving hundreds of staff failed to locate them. In November 2020, Dr Jessica Gardner, University Librarian, made a public appeal and reported the loss to Cambridgeshire Police and Interpol. On 9 March 2022, the notebooks were anonymously returned in a pink gift bag left outside Gardner's office, wrapped in cling film inside a plain brown envelope, accompanied by a printed note reading "Librarian. Happy Easter. X."