Darwin Online is the worlds largest and most widely used resource on Darwin, as said by its chief editor, John Van Wyhe. Van Wyhe is a historian of science, whose work has mainly focused on Charles Darwin and his “runner up” on the theory of evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace.
Van Wyhe’s Darwin Online is not a collection of his writings on Darwin. Instead, his website mainly functions as a connector or a digital network linking between the many primary and secondary sources on Darwin. Here users can find original works of Darwin in transcribed PDF form, original images of the handwritten text, and many more assets. The PDFs are accessible in multiple languages, making the site available to a much wider audience. The non-primary information on Darwin conveys other interesting knowledge about his life. For example on the sites media tab, interesting links can be found on the scientist’s background, including a timeline telling the story of Darwin’s life. This page also links to what seems to be every news bite ever written about the man. Here one can find new articles, academic writings, and radio shows. One interesting page I saw under the media tab, displayed primary and secondary sources on “Darwin and Religion.” This is something I would think to be uncommon in sites on Darwin. Although Darwin did write on theology, it was obviously not the primary focus of his work. The vast amount of knowledge on Darwin’s life in all aspects shows how this resource is indeed the best digital source for researching the man. I found it interesting how Van Wyhe, with his vast knowledge, could have written a book about Darwin. It could have included his summary of every aspect contained in the site. However Van Wyhe chose not to, and I find his work more productive. If one is researching for any reason, you can begin with the brief biography, view the timeline of his life, and quickly browse over all the titles he worked on. Before I start to research a topic in depth, I always begin by quickly reading over Wikipedia and I try to find some digital media on the subject. This way I can quickly get my head around the subject, and begin to form my outline. After a proper outline is formed I begin to start reading in depth. This layout of Van Wyhe’s site optimizes for quick learning by holding this structure. I think this point exposes what the most important aspect of digital history, that the structure of information can be much more dynamic. Dynamic structures can present and organize information in ways that will help you learn the best. In the Case of Darwin Online, I believe Van Wyhe did a good job organizing the information. The only suggestion I would make to his site is the somewhat outdated graphics and fonts, which do not exactly match current trends.
