"A magnificent scheme"

so said Charles Darwin of the Voyage of the Beagle in a letter. A similarly magnificent scheme is the Darwin Correspondence Project which has just made 5,000 of his letters available online, including many dating from his days on the Beagle and from the turbulent times around the publication of the Origin of Species. More information about the Darwin Correspondence Project here. Huge thanks and congratulations to all concerned for making these valuable resources available to us, BBC story here.

Their work isn't yet done: there's another 9,000 where they came from. Prolific chap, our Charles.