Online archive of Humphry Davy’s notebooks opens to the public

A new online archive allows members of the public to browse Humphry Davy’s lab notebooks. As well as recording Davy’s numerous scientific experiments, the notebooks contain poems, shopping lists and gossip – providing unique insights into the mind of one of chemistry’s influential figures.

The archive is hosted on Lancaster University’s Digital Collections platform and is the result of a years-long citizen-science project led by Lancaster’s Sharon Ruston. Since 2019, almost 4000 volunteers have helped to transcribe over 13,000 pages of lecture notes and notebooks.