Galapagueana
Digital books
The Library, Archives & Museum area of the Charles Darwin Foundation houses collections that include a number of unique documents relating to the history of Galapagos. Due to their historical and social importance, these materials are protected under stable storage conditions, and are being digitized to help safeguard their contents.
Such contents, moreover, are progressively being transcribed, translated, edited, annotated and published in digital format, to facilitate their access, consultation and use, or are serving as the basis for new original works of popularization, which are also published virtually.
In this section those digital books are presented, with a brief summary and a link for free download. The compilations of Galapagueana's contents can be downloaded from the section "Galapagueana to take away".
Contributions, collaborations, comments, suggestions or donations of original material can be sent to the Galapagueana contact email.
Book index
In 1938-9, accompanying her husband, chemist T. W. J. Taylor, on the Lack-Venables Expedition to the Galapagos Islands, British Georgina Lloyd spent several months in the archipelago, especially in Santa Cruz, in what later became Puerto Ayora. Her handwritten travel diary contains valuable information about life on the island at the beginning of the 20th century, and about the daily experiences of those first scientific expeditions. The present digital version is an edited transcription of the only extant original copy.
The Materiales didácticos de educación ambiental ("Environmental Education Teaching Materials") were originally published in 1998 as "teaching guides" by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) for its Environmental Education Centers (EEC). They were produced as "field guides for teachers" within the formal education strategies of the CDF, and their use was promoted both in the EEC and in the Galapagoan educational sector. The present digital version is a scan of the last extant originals.
A History of Galapagos in Fifteen Documents is a digital book produced by the CDF Library, Archive & Museum area that collects and presents textual materials that represent milestones in the history of Galapagos. They have been chosen from a wide and rich documental collection, as representative elements of an era: the one that goes from the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century. The result is an open-access work that provides several gateways to the fascinating history of the islands.
Marine Iguanas: Between Land and Sea is a digital book devoted to the famous reptiles of the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to the iconic species is sought.
Land Iguanas: Dragons of Galapagos is a digital book devoted to the famous reptiles of the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to the iconic species is sought.
Galapagos is the digital version of a manuscript prepared by Gerard Thomas Corley Smith, Secretary General of the CDF between 1972 and 1984, and never published. In its chapters, the author explores the human and natural history of the islands and their geography, including detailed accounts of events such as pirate visits or the odyssey of the Alexandra. He also presents descriptions of many iconic Galapagos species, such as giant tortoises, sea lions, iguanas and, above all, birds.
Eruptions: Islands of Fire is a digital book devoted to the volcanic phenomena in the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to the islands' volcanoes is sought.
Galapagos Sealions & Seals is a digital book devoted to two of the marine mammals of the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to the two iconic species is sought.
Flying the Islands Skies is a digital book devoted to the birds of the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago, taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to several of the most iconic Galapagoan species is sought.
Archaeological Artifacts at the CDF Museum is a digital book that presents the small collection of archaeological artifacts housed by the Library, Archive & Museum area of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). Through a handful of images of this collection, this document works as an introduction to the archaeological work that, according to the available bibliographic citations and with varying degrees of academic depth, has been carried out in Galapagos territory, and that eventually gave rise to this collection.
The slides of Alfred Croneis is a three-part work featuring original photographs taken by American physician Alfred Croneis during the time he served at the military base on Baltra Island in 1943.
Download Part I [.pdf | 36.1 Mb | English]
Download Part II [.pdf | 23.6 Mb | English]
Download Part III [.pdf | 43.4 Mb | English]
Cormorants: Flightless birds is a digital book devoted to the cormorants of the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago, taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to this iconic Galapagoan species is sought.
Penguins of the Galapagos Islands is a digital book devoted to the penguins of the archipelago. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago, taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to this iconic Galapagoan species is sought.
Blue-footed boobies is a digital book devoted to the boobies of the Galapagos Islands. The work combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of historical texts on the archipelago, taken from bibliographic sources of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, a more immediate approach to this iconic Galapagoan species is sought.
Notes on the Galapagos Islands is the digital version of a manuscript prepared by the Norwegian Jacob P. Lundh, a colonist in Galapagos, in the 1960s, and never published before. The text was found among the contents of the Library's special collections. Its chapters explore the human and natural history of the islands from an absolutely local perspective, providing unique data not found in other sources about the reality of the archipelago in the mid-20th century.
The work of the CDF in the Galapagos Islands is a digital book devoted to the scientific activities in the archipelago. The volume combines a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen with a selection of texts by G. T. Corley Smith that are part of the "Historical Bibliography" in Galapagueana. Using both resources, an integral approach to the labours of the CDF in the islands is sought.
Landscapes of the Encantadas is a digital book devoted to the different landscapes and sceneries that can be found in the Galapagos Islands. The work presents a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen, along with the notes he added in the frames of his slides. All the material is preserved, carefully organized, in the CDF Library, Archive and Museum, and is shared with the aim of showing a unique, local view of the archipelago's many horizons.
Galapagoan landscapes is a digital book devoted to the different landscapes and sceneries that can be found in the Galapagos Islands. The work presents a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen, along with the notes he added in the frames of his slides. All the material is preserved, carefully organized, in the CDF Library, Archive and Museum, and is shared with the aim of showing a unique, local view of the archipelago's many horizons.
Images of the archipelago is a digital book devoted to the different landscapes and sceneries that can be found in the Galapagos Islands. The work presents a series of photographs by British researcher Godfrey Merlen, along with the notes he added in the frames of his slides. All the material is preserved, carefully organized, in the CDF Library, Archive and Museum, and is shared with the aim of showing a unique, local view of the archipelago's many horizons.
The present work is an unpublished photographic album belonging to the first director of the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS), the Swiss ornithologist Raymond Lévêque. In 1960, Lévêque was in charge of choosing the site for the CDRS at its present location, near Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz Island), and of erecting its first buildings. The photographs depict his journey from Europe to Ecuador, the Galapagos reality of the time, and the entire construction process.
This digital book is the first part of a two-part work that brings together written and graphic testimonies preserved at the CDF pertaining to Vincent Astor's Nourmahal expedition to the Galapagos Islands in 1930. This volume presents a collection of photographs printed on paper that give an account of the tasks of the expedition members, the landscapes they traveled through, and the species they encountered.
This digital book is the second part of a two-part work that brings together written and graphic testimonies preserved at the CDF pertaining to Vincent Astor's Nourmahal expedition to the Galapagos Islands in 1930. This volume presents the diary of James P. Chapin, a famous American ornithologist who participated in the voyage and who, in his notes, gives an account of the tasks of the expedition members, the landscapes they traveled through, and the species they encountered.
Text & picture: Edgardo Civallero (edgardo.civallero@fcdarwin.org.ec).
Publication date: 1 December 2021
Last update: 22 December 2023