Online calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin

Project start date: 2001-06

Project end date: 2002-05

The web resource created through the AHRB-funded initiative `An online calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin' and launched in 2002, was based on a revised and updated edition of the printed Calendar to the Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1821 – 1882 (Cambridge University Press, 1994), but incorporated further substantial additions and corrections. The book summarises every letter that the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-82) was then known to have sent or received and is a standard reference work for scholars. As letters continually come to light or are redated in the course of research, print format becomes quickly out of date; the creation of a searchable online version was an highly desirable step. That resource has continued to be expanded and refined and now forms the backbone of a continually updated online edition of the full texts of the letters (see http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/). Texts are added to the site four years after print publication with more than 6200 of a known total of around 15000 available by July 2009. The basic entry for each letter, both in the printed Calendar and on the Darwin Correspondence Project website, contains the following information: a reference number (the ‘Calendar’ or ‘Letter’ number); the name of the correspondent, if identified; the address, if one appears on the letter or can be supplied; and the date, if known or conjectured. The body of the entry contains the summary of the content. The physical description of the letter is then given, and, if it has been published, a bibliographical reference is added. Finally the location of the original or copy that is the basis of the entry is recorded. Generation of XML files from variously encoded ASCII files, including TeX and LaTeX; generation of XHTML from XML.