Contributions to the Darwin Online Project, 2018-2024.

Most joyful years: I was an associate editor with Darwin Online. My first contribution was adding over a hundred new references for Darwin publications in Chinese and correcting the original Chinese references in the Freeman Bibliographical Database where all known Darwin publications are recorded. I later contributed scans of Darwin’s works in ten further languages, some from my own collection, and added many new foreign references to the Database. In 2019 I transcribed the remaining 59 of Emma Darwin’s 60 diaries and updated the 1839 diary. Subsequently, I transcribed Emma Darwin’s Recipe Book and her children’s story book The pound of sugar. I did further work on a wide variety of topics for Darwin Online and discovered hundreds of reviews and obituaries and conducted extensive research for the book Darwin. A Companion by Paul van Helvert and John van Wyhe. I had transcribed and annotated a substantial proportion (c16,000) of the Darwin Archive in Cambridge University Library for Darwin Online. I had also made substantial contributions to the important collections and many introductions, including:

I am the co-author of Charles Darwin: Justice of the peace. The complete records (1857-1882). 2021. (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, PDF)

Extracts from Darwin Online pages, accolades from the director of the site:

“A vast amount of work by Christine Chua from transcribing, image preparation and renaming, catalogue and reference improvements and discoveries and much else has contributed very greatly to the library.” (12 Feb., 2024)

“The greatest contributor to this project [Reviews & Responses to Darwin] has been Christine Chua, associate editor with Darwin Online. She uncovered and procured copies of hundreds of previously unrecorded reviews, prepared references, checked ruthlessly for errors and inconsistencies, transcribed more than 500 and made countless other careful contributions. The project could not have been completed without her indefatigable work.”

“Christine Chua has made the most substantial contributions of any volunteer with the project including adding hundreds of references to the Freeman Bibliographical Database, contributed scans of Darwin’s works in more than ten further languages, transcribed the entirety of Emma Darwin’s diary and made literally thousands of other corrections, transcriptions and additions to Darwin Online. Vast tracts of Darwin’s writings are now readable and searchable for readers around the world.”

“Christine Chua has provided references to hundreds of previously unrecorded Darwin translations in many languages as well as correcting errors and supplying omissions in hundreds of other references in the database.”

“Christine Chua has tirelessly scanned many of Darwin’s works in translation, some from her own collection.”

“We are particularly grateful to Sue Asscher, Katie Tabb, Arthur Koehl and especially Christine Chua for renaming thousands of these images.” (MSS)

Contributions and acknowledgement

2023. The J.C. Simpson Collection of Darwiniana, McGill University.
“Many thanks also to Christine Chua for corrections and improvements to the catalogue and even transcribing the items in the collection, making its contents searchable for everyone.” (JvW)
2023. “On The Protection of Leaves from Water”: Charles Darwin’s unpublished last book. Chua, Christine & John van Wyhe.
2022. Darwin’s referee reports and other interesting items from the Linnean Society of London. Photographed and transcribed. MSS
2022. Richard Darwin Keynes. 2000. Darwin’s Zoological diary from the voyage of the Beagle. Itemized
“Christine Chua has adapted and expanded the transcription to fit alongside images of the manuscript.” (JvW)
2022. Emma Darwin’s letters to her son George, 1881-1883. Chua, Christine & John van Wyhe.\
2021. The reviews of Charles Darwin.
“She uncovered and procured copies of hundreds of previously unrecorded reviews, prepared references, checked ruthlessly for errors and inconsistencies, transcribed more than 500 and made countless other careful contributions. The project could not have been completed without her indefatigable work.” (JvW)
2021. [Notes on worms etc. for Earthworms, including (1) castings; (2) furrows & ploughed land; (3) experiments at different locales, anatomy etc.] Text & images CUL-DAR63-65
“Darwin’s collection of notes for his research on earthworms, c. 50,000 words in all, has been transcribed by Christine Chua.” (JvW)
2021. Charles Darwin: Justice of the peace. The complete records (1857-1882). (With Christine Chua) (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Free PDF)
2020. Some original sketches of Alfred Russel Wallace in contemporary newspapers. Christine Chua with assistance from John van Wyhe.
2018 – Darwin’s manuscripts. Renaming and correcting thousands of references.
2018 – Freeman Bibliographical Database. A1
“Christine Chua has provided hundreds of previously unrecorded Darwin translations in many languages as well as correcting errors and supplying omissions in hundreds of other references in the database.”

These are some of the projects I had assisted in no small part.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_Communicated_by_Darwin.html
http://darwin-online.org.uk/recollections.html
http://darwin-online.org.uk/obituaries.html

Notable contributions recorded and announced on Facebook:

2023, 11.24. The draft of Origin of species. Assisted since 2018 and transcribed many of the draft sheets.
2023, 10.18: A draft of the introduction to Origin of species? The significance of the document in CUL-DAR64.2.28v came to light as part of Christine Chua’s historic work transcribing Darwin manuscripts.
2023, 10.07: Collection of letters from Emma Darwin to her son Francis. Introduction.
2023, 08.25: J.C. Simpson Collection of Darwiniana. Christine Chua has since transcribed virtually the entire collection and improved the catalogue.
2023, 07.20: Transcribed for the first time, CUL-DAR157.1 and CUL-DAR157.2.
2023, 07.16: Charles Darwin’s unpublished last book- “On The Protection of Leaves from Water“
2023, 05.29: Draft fragment of Natural selection, chapter IX Hybridism. CUL-DAR77.112r.
2023, 04.26: Darwin’s funeral. Assisted by Christine Chua.
2023, 04.19: The Darwin Online project has assembled the largest collection of Darwin obituaries in history- over 260 in 11 languages- 180 of them fully transcribed.
2023, 03.02: Record transcription of Darwin manuscripts. In 2022 about 7,000 more pages of Darwin’s hard-to-decipher handwritten scientific notes, abstracts and drafts were transcribed in Darwin Online. (26,978 manuscript pages in total). This also included are hundreds of further corrections to the original catalogue of Darwin papers with many words or species names being corrected or first deciphered and dates found or clarified. Also very many fragments of drafts of Darwin’s books and articles have been correctly identified for the first time.
2022, 12.02: Codicil to Darwin’s last Will and Testament. Skinner-2865BLot18
2022, 12.01: Over 280 more reviews of Darwin’s works have been transcribed as well as many references corrected.
2022, 11.30: We have added some exciting manuscripts and recollections of Darwin. Almost all are transcribed by Christine Chua.
2022, 11.27: Darwin, Library borrowing ledger page. RRAuction7Dec.2022Lot1095.
2022, 11.26: The first biography of Darwin, Bacon, G. W. [1882]- and today the rarest.
2022, 11.25: Sketch of the dimorphic flowers of the primrose. Bonhams-11388Lot83.
2022, 11.20: A newly recorded Darwin publication [Letter to Borrow, 1858]. F3521
2022, 11.10: A lost Darwin manuscript is found. T. D. A. Cockerell F3515
2022, 10.29: Ten newly recorded/discovered Darwin publications.
2022, 10.17: Seven previously unknown Darwin letters including two unrecorded correspondents are added today.
2022, 10.10: Recollections of Darwin in private from long-term family friend Vernon Lushington.
2022, 09.28: Communicated by Darwin
2022, 09.25: Darwin’s referee reports and other interesting items from the Linnean Society of London published for the first time. Photographed and transcribed by Christine Chua.
2022, 09.20: Christine Chua has heroically transcribed CUL-DAR39 and CUL-DAR46.2.
2022, 08.06: Yet another newly discovered Darwin letter and publication.
2022, 07.31: Some newly recorded items from Darwin.
2022, 07.24: Declaration against war [with Russia]. F2449b
2022, 07.14: Darwin’s great-great grandson Richard Darwin Keynes published Darwin’s Zoological diary from the voyage of the Beagle in 2000. The whole volume is on Darwin Online, thanks to Richard’s efforts. Christine Chua has adapted and expanded the transcription to fit alongside images of the manuscript. The diary lists the animals collected by Darwin during the voyage with fascinating details about their habits.
2022, 07.09: Darwin’s letters to her son George, 1881-1883. Introduction.
2022, 07.04: [Memorial on the] Persecution of the Jews in Russia. F2529a
2022, 06.27: A rare pamphlet. F3450
2022, 06.23: Important new additions to Darwin Online. PC-Virginia.
2022, 06.19: Darwin’s notes for his research on the expression of emotions have now been transcribed- about 360 pages in all. CUL-DAR195, CUL-DAR53 & CUL-DAR189.
2022, 06.11: A previously unrecognised draft of Darwin’s Historical sketch for Origin of species written in 1860 has been identified and transcribed. CUL-DAR64.2.13v.
2022, 06.02: A newly recorded publication. [Darwin, and Hermann Kindt]. F3448
2022, 05.19: We have added over seventy more publications with Darwin letters.
2022, 05.18: Personal recollections of the great scientist. Bromley and District Times, (13 September): 3. F3436
2022, 04.19: Darwin family’s collection of letters and telegrams from his relatives, friends, contemporaries and institutions…These have been transcribed for the first time, only on Darwin Online.
2022, 03.27: The catalogue has now been transcribed for the first time. Catalogue of the appendages and other parts of Cirripedes, mounted as microscopical slides. UMZC-Histories3.454
2022, 03.15: ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’ translated into traditional Chinese by Meng-Hua Hung, edited by Christine Chua. F3367.
2021, 11.18: Three newly discovered translations and letters in print.
2021, 11.11: Charles Darwin has been the most influential scientist in history. Launched online now are the results of a project over sixteen years in the making…Over 1,700 book reviews of Charles Darwin’s works go online.
2021, 10.10: Darwin’s collection of notes for his research on earthworms, c. 50,000 words in all, has been transcribed by Christine Chua.
2021, 09.18: A collection of little known and forgotten biographical entries (some with unique portraits).
2021, 07.15: A newly uncovered and newly recorded Darwin letters in print; Woodall, 1884.
2021, 07.01: Ainsworth, William F. 1882. [Recollection] Mr. Darwin. A2119.
2021, 06.02: Newly recorded publication communicated by Darwin: Barber, M. E. (Mrs). 1874. A2100
2021, 05.18: O’Shaughnessy, 1876. Darwin confounded. CUL-DAR132.4. Edited.
2021, 05.04: After Darwin’s death in 1882, an 1873 letter he wrote about his belief in God was widely reprinted in newspapers around the world. This is the original publication by the recipient of the letter:
Darwin, 1882. [Letter to N. D. Doedes on 2 April 1873 on Darwin’s religious views]. In N. D. Doedes, Darwin’s geloof aan God. De Nederlandsche Spectator. F3334
2021, 04.18: Newly transcribed recollections of Darwin.
Darwin died 19 April 1882. Tributes and accolades soon poured in from all over the world. Perhaps none so personal as letters sent to the Darwin family, particularly to Francis Darwin. Francis placed notices, following his father’s death, in various newspapers and scientific journals asking for the loan of letters by Darwin, for a biography of his father. The biography is of course the Life and Letters of Charles Darwin published in 1887. The response to the notices was overwhelming. We have transcribed those with reminiscences and recollections of Darwin. – CC
2021, 03.24: Newly discovered letter F1901 and previously unrecorded letters in print…And a strange apocryphal paper- the result of a garbled press report :
Anon. 1839. [On the gradual uprising of the Earth in certain Places, by Charles Darwin.] The Literary Gazette. A20842021, 02.13: F2059, F2753, These additions to Darwin Online have increased the number of transcribed text pages to over 200,000.
2021, 01.30: A collection of articles in various languages on Darwin. See for example the news report of cricket matches played on the Down House grounds in 1870, a spoof of Darwin playing draw poker and an article by Horace Darwin on the ‘worm stone’. Two early biographies of Darwin have been proofread and corrected.
2021, 01.24: Family Letters; reading notes (abstracts); American editions; Darwin Centenary.
2020, 12.11: Darwin, Emma. 1877. Vivisection and cruelty. To the editor of the “Spectator”. The Spectator, (6 January): 15. A2030
2020, 12.04: Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. F2565 and F2566.
2020, 11.29: Some more of Darwin’s scientific reading notes have been transcribed and published for the first time. CUL-DAR71.70-73; CUL-DAR71.139-142; CUL-DAR205.2.53.
2020, 11.23: Rare and important Darwin manuscripts from a private collection in the USA
2020, 11.12: Some fascinating rare items on Darwin’s home, Down House.
2020, 10.16: [Letters to Lyell and Thomas Francis Jamieson] F2564; Darwin, and Covington, S. 1832. [Diodon in Bahia]. CUL-DAR29.1.A49; Darwin, and Covington, S. [Reading notes on Thomas Bell’s A History of British Quadrupeds]. CUL-DAR71.116-124
2020, 10.06: Published today, a recollection of Darwin on the Beagle by a shipmate has been transcribed as well two important transcriptions of Darwin’s post-voyage geological notes from the UK by Michael B. Roberts.
2020, 09.19: Today we publish transcriptions of some of Darwin’s earliest notes including one on treating patients from information from his father and his grandfather’s Zoonomia, characteristics of birds, notes on materia medica from Edinburgh University and some of his first geological notes taken near the family home. We have also transcribed the correspondence relating to the transfer of the Darwin papers to Cambridge University Library in the 1940s. CUL-DAR156.
2020, 08.30: A newly discovered memorial signed by Darwin (for the National Sunday League) and previously unrecorded recollections of Darwin with words attributed to him, including an overlooked visit by the Czech philosopher Josef Durdík.
2020, 08.27: Today we have added nine early translations of Darwin into Japanese as well as transcribed some draft fragments of Origin, Expression and other notes by Darwin.
2020, 08.23: Darwin, 1825-1826. Dr Hope’s Chymistry. CUL-DAR5.A6-A11
2020, 07.12: Huxley, Leonard. 1929. A1798; Excursion to Keston Rectory, the Rookery, and home of Darwin. A1793 and Bain, Alexander. 1904. F2024.
2020, 07.11: Thanks to the diligence of Christine Chua, we are adding a large collection of supplementary works that cover a myriad of topics in various languages. There are biographical sketches of Darwin, discussions of his work and tributes, several with interesting illustrations.
2020, 07.10: Letters: Darwin to Owen F2553; to Charles E. Norton F2551; James E. Todd F2555; W.A.H. 1930. Charles Darwin: Some reminiscences F2554.
2020.06.14: A newly discovered Darwin letter, three new Darwin publications as well as a transcription of his list of shells collected during the voyage of the Beagle.
2020, 05.17: Four contemporary biographical articles on Darwin.
2020, 05.11: Some overlooked items by Darwin’s son Francis, one dictated by Darwin on a press report about a race of men with tales “even if it should, prove true, it would…have no important bearing on evolution” and his father’s view of Greek in education. Also, an anonymous report about how Darwin respected and facilitated the church attendance of his servants.
2020, 05.05: Five newly recorded Darwin publications, in this case some of his letters in print.
2020, 05.03: [Catalogue of trees and plants at Down House.] PC-California Text
2020, 03.10: Darwin letters in: Jones, H. F. 1912. Samuel Butler’s lost dialogue: F2536
2020, 03.01: On the occasion of Annie Darwin’s 180th birthday letters by Annie, her governess Miss Thorley and Emma Darwin’s personal memorial and other related items have been transcribed and published online for the first time. CUL-DAR210.13
2020, 01.25: Newly discovered Darwin letter in print. This one explains why Darwin omitted the famous whale-bear story from later editions of Origin of species. F2533
2020, 01.14: Some original sketches of Alfred Russel Wallace in contemporary newspapers. A1126
2020, 01.03: More newly discovered Darwin publications and letters in print.
2019, 12.30: New Darwin words found in print. Thomatis, D. A1123, F2497, etc.
2019, 12.29: [Letter to F. J. Muniz.] F2481; Darwin to Owen F2476; Myths A1122
2019, 12.26: Darwin library. List of books received in the University Library Cambridge March – May 1961. A1036, etc.
2019, 12.24: [Letters to Syms Covington.] F2219; Unpublished Darwin letter [to Symington Grieve, 1882.] F2260, etc.
2019, 12.19: [Letter to H.K. Rusden.] F1891; [Letter to ‘Pomona’.] F2131, etc.
2019, 11.23: Many newly discovered items including recollections of Darwin, obituaries of his family and a transcription of his collection of Beagle rocks, all transcribed by Christine Chua, have been added to Darwin Online.
2019, 10.05: Darwin, Emma, ‘The pound of sugar’. CUL-DAR185.101; Index to annotations by Darwin in his copies of Gardeners’ Chronicle; List of the numbers of special interest to Darwin and kept by him in separate parcels, 1847-71. CUL-DAR222.1
2019, 09.22: All sixty notebooks of Emma Darwin’s diary into a single file for easier searching: Emma Darwin’s diary (1824-1896): CUL-DAR242
2019, 09.11: List of personal friends invited to funeral of Darwin Charles Robert. 1882.04.26. Transcribed by Christine Chua
2019, 09.11: 1950. Fertilisation of Flowers [in Russian]. Darwin’s preface only. F1433
2019, 07.13: Emma Sophia Galton to Darwin (From a private collection).
2019, 07.12: Newly discovered, the first translation from Darwin’s book Expression of the emotions in Hungarian, thanks to Christine Chua
2019, 07.11: Collection of papers by George Howard Darwin.
2019, 07.05: [Recollection and letter of Darwin] J. W. C Fegan: A tribute, The Life of Mr. Fegan. F2523, etc.
2019, 06.22: Completely transcribed for the first time, courtesy of Christine Chua: Emma Darwin’s Recipe Book. DAR214
2019, 06.18: Darwin in Finnish- a new language for Darwin Online– bringing the number of languages to 29. Courtesy of Christine Chua – 1924. Matka maapallon ympäri. F179a
2019, 05.11: Published here for the first time- complete transcriptions of Emma Darwin’s diaries. They contain a treasure trove of unique information about the lives of the Darwin family and many others.
2019, 04.13: The Origin of species in Chinese. Courtesy of Christine Chua – 1972. 物种起源. F640a
2019, 04.01: Published here for the first time- transcriptions of Emma Darwin’s diaries from 1850-1859. This period includes the deaths of her children Annie and Charles Waring and the writing and publication of Darwin’s Origin of species.
2019, 03.29: Now the entries in the diaries from 1840 onwards are being transcribed by Christine Chua.
2019, 03.01: Courtesy of Associate Editor Christine Chua, four books by Darwin in Italian translation that were not previously in Darwin Online.
2019, 02.02: Courtesy of the indefatigable Christine Chua, the collected works of Darwin in Polish.
2019, 01: Courtesy of Christine Chua, the first Japanese translations of Origin of species and Descent of man and the first works in Japanese on Darwin Online.
“The 1881 Descent of man and the 1896 Origin of species were published in the Meiji-era. Even though more than 50% of the texts in both books are in Chinese characters, the sentence structure is very much modified. The title of the book, the translator, year of publication and publishers are clear enough for any Chinese readers to make out, but the mix of kanbun (a form of classical Chinese writing) and katakana (a Japanese syllabary) in the main text can only be read by someone with a knowledge of both forms of writing, their grammar etc.” CC
2019, 01: Many more translations of Darwin’s works provided by Christine Chua, including 8 languages new to Darwin Online (Arabic, Basque, Bengali, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Malay, Turkish & Vietnamese) as well as more previously unrecorded references and translations for the Freeman Bibliographical Database.
2018, 12.31: More translations and editions including some previously unrecorded translations, courtesy of Christine Chua.
2018, 12.30: Three important new works on Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle in Chinese courtesy of Christine Chua.
2018, 12: Darwin in Hungarian! Christine Chua has provided translations of Darwin in Hungarian and uncovered previously unknown references for the Freeman Bibliographical Database.
2018, 12: Darwin in Romanian! Christine Chua has provided translations of Darwin in Romanian (9 books in total) and uncovered previously unknown references for the Freeman Bibliographical Database.
2018, 12: Darwin in Chinese. Christine Chua has made a great contribution to Darwin Online by scanning 17 Darwin books in Chinese, totaling 11,164 pages. Only two of these were previously available online. Chua has also revised and substantially corrected all 104 of the bibliographical references to Chinese translations of Darwin in the Freeman Bibliographical Database and discovered 111 new references. 蔡碧叶女士亲自扫描了17本达尔文中文书籍, 共11,164页,为达尔文在线做出了巨大贡献。这些资料中仅有2份是以前在线提供的。蔡女士还对资料进行了大幅修正，纠正了在Freeman书目数据库中104条参考文献的中文翻译并且发现了111个新的参考文献。

2018, 01 Christine Chua, who would become our most important and prolific volunteer and later an Associate editor, begins contributing to Darwin Online.