By GARRETT BABB
Staff Writer
Two decades ago, two of Charles Darwin’s famous notebooks were stolen from Cambridge University’s library. The notebooks contained many of the important works and illustrations of Charles Darwin, such as his famous “Tree of Life” sketch. They were also filled with his ideas that followed shortly after his voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle where he would develop ideas that would ultimately form his landmark work on evolution, “on the origin of species”. Back in 2001, these notebooks were reported missing after being removed from the library for photography, however, at the time staff believed that it was just misplaced. After thoroughly searching the vast Cambridge library, it was found that the notebooks were indeed missing and the police were finally informed of the missing notebooks in October 2020. Local detectives had notified the global police organization Interpol and began an international hunt for the notebooks which were valued at millions of dollars. But finally, in 2022 the books were dropped off in a pink bag with a letter, the letter containing a message to the librarian stating “Happy Easter”.