Darwin notebooks missing for 20 years returned to Cambridge

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Two of naturalist Charles Darwin’s notebooks that were reported stolen from Cambridge University have been returned, two decades after they disappeared. The university said Tuesday that the manuscripts were left in its library inside a pink gift bag, along with a note wishing the librarian a Happy Easter. The notebooks went missing in 2001, though at the time staff believed they might have been misplaced. After searches failed to find them, they were reported stolen to police in October 2020. On March 9, the books reappeared, left in a public area of the building, outside the librarian’s office. The notebooks include the 19th-century scientist’s famous “Tree of Life” sketch and are valued at millions of dollars.