Rare Darwin Book Returned to Library

A rare first-edition copy of Charles Darwin’s seminal work on natural selection has been returned to the Boston Public Library after disappearing at least eight decades ago.

An 1859 copy of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” was returned last week after a woman found the book while cleaning out a late relative’s home, said Roberta Zonghi, the library’s keeper of rare books.

The library received the book in the 1860s as a gift, Zonghi said.

Julie Geissler found the book in the home of her great-great-grand-uncle, who taught Shakespeare at Brown University in Providence, R.I., Zonghi said.