The university said Tuesday that the manuscripts were left in the library in a pink gift bag, along with a note wishing the librarian a Happy Easter.
The notebooks, which include the famous 1837 sketch by the 1837 scientist “Tree of Life”, were lost in 2001 after being removed for photography, although staff at the time believed they may have been misplaced. After searches of the library’s collection of 10 million books, maps and manuscripts failed to find them, they were reported stolen by police in October 2020.
Local detectives alerted the global police organization Interpol and launched an international hunt for millions of dollars worth of notebooks.
On March 9, the books reappeared, left in a common area of the building, outside the library office, which is not covered by security cameras. The two notebooks were wrapped in foil inside their file box and looked intact. The accompanying note read: “Librarian Happy Easter X.”
Darwin filled the notebooks with ideas shortly after his return from a trip around the world with the HMS Beagle, developing ideas that would flourish in his landmark development work, “On the Origin of Species.”
University Jessica Gardner, director of library services, said her sense of relief at the reappearance of the books was “deep and almost impossible to express adequately.”
“Notebooks can now take their rightful place next to the rest of the Darwin Archive in Cambridge, at the heart of the nation’s cultural and scientific heritage, along with the archives of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Stephen Hawking,” he said.
The notebooks will be on public display from July as part of a Darwin exhibition at the library.
Cambridgeshire police said the investigation was ongoing, “and we are following some lines of investigation.”
“We are also renewing our appeal for anyone with information on the case to contact us,” the force said.
