Darwin’s “stolen” tree of life notebooks reappear after 22 years

Missing for 22 years from the University of Cambridge library and considered stolen, two notebooks of  British naturalist Charles Darwin worth millions of dollars have mysteriously reappeared in a gift bag deposited in the library with an Easter greeting card.

The two leather-bound notebooks, one of which contains the sketch of the “Tree of Life” — which became the symbol of the English naturalist’s theory of evolution — “were returned in good condition to the university library of Cambridge more than two decades after they disappeared,” the library said in a statement on Tuesday.

The notebooks were delivered anonymously on March 9, 2022, in a pink bag with a card in an envelope

wishing librarians “Happy Easter,” it said.  The books were in cling wrap, and the library had to wait for police permission before removing the wrap and finding the notebooks unharmed.