The late Stephen J. Gould has bequeathed his entire collection to Stanford University, who intends to digitize much of it and create a “hyperlinked” version of it. An article in the San Jose Mercury News explained that while Gould was never affiliated with Stanford, his home campus (Harvard) was apparently not interested in the project.
Gould taught in the areas of biology, paleontology and the history of science, although his work covers a much, much larger scope of knowledge. He is known for making connections across seemingly unrelated fields of study. His collection, although not inventoried yet, is said to an contain early editions of Darwin’s “Decent of Man”, among many other treasures.
Stanford now faces the challenge of actually creating this hyperlinked version of Gould’s collection. Good luck to them!
Here’s a link to the Unofficial Stephen J. Gould Archive.
Image info here.