More than two decades after a pair of leather-bound manuscripts filled with Charles Darwin’s chicken-scratch handwriting disappeared from the Cambridge University Library, they were anonymously returned in a pink gift bag with a typed note that read: “Librarian/ Happy Easter/ X.” The notebooks, one of which contains Darwin’s “tree of life” sketch from 1837, were placed outside the librarian’s office on March 9 in a public area not surveilled by CCTV. “My sense of relief at the notebooks’ safe return is profound and almost impossible to adequately express,” said Dr. Jessica Gardner, director of library services. The manuscripts went missing in 2001 when they were briefly removed to be photographed. Reported as stolen for the first time in 2020, authorities launched a frantic 15-month search, making international appeals for their safe return. The notebooks, which are in good condition, appear to be the real things. “They’re some of the most remarkable documents in the whole history of science,” Jim Secord, a Cambridge University history professor, told the BBC. They will be put on public display in the library in July.
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