- Natural History Museum, London: NHM WP1/8/214
- Natural History Museum, London: NHM WP1/8/214
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Showing 1–20 of 44 items
The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913) was one of the world's most important scientists. His seminal contributions to biology rival those of his friend and colleague Charles Darwin, though he is far less well known. Together Wallace and Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, and their prolific subsequent work laid the foundations of modern evolutionary biology, and much more besides.
Wallace made enduring scholarly contributions to subjects as diverse as glaciology, land reform, anthropology, ethnography, epidemiology, and astrobiology. His pioneering work on evolutionary biogeography (the science that seeks to explain the geographical distribution of organisms) led to him becoming recognised as that subject’s ‘father’. Beyond this Wallace is regarded as the pre-eminent collector and field biologist of tropical regions of the 19th century, and his book The Malay Archipelago (which was Joseph Conrad’s favourite bedside reading) is one of the most celebrated travel writings of that century and has never been out of print. Wallace was a man with an extraordinary breadth of interests who was actively engaged with many of the big questions and important issues of his day. He was anti-slavery, anti-eugenics, anti-vivisection, anti-militarism, anti-Imperialism, a conservationist and an advocate of woman's rights. He strongly believed in the rights of the ordinary person, was a socialist, an anti-vaccinationist (for rational reasons), and a believer in naturalistic, evolutionary spiritualism. He did not come from a privileged background and was largely self-taught. For a brief biography see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/mini-biography
The Wallace Correspondence Project (WCP) was founded by George Beccaloni in 2010. Its aims are to locate, digitise, catalogue, transcribe, interpret and publish Wallace's surviving correspondence and other manuscripts. About 5,700 letters to and from Wallace are currently known to survive, and they are held by c. 240 institutions and individuals worldwide. Wallace's letters are a biographical treasure trove, which provides a far better picture of the 'real' Wallace than his heavily edited and censored published writings (e.g. his autobiography My Life (1905) and his letters in Marchant's Letters and Reminiscences (1916)). For example, Wallace never even mentions his wife's name (Annie) in any of his published writings, including his autobiography. The letters are also key to gaining a deeper understanding of his scientific and other work: how and why his ideas arose, and how they evolved over time.
The WCP is unlocking this valuable resource by gathering all the letters together for the first time, and transcribing them so that they can be more easily read and information within them discovered using electronic searches for words and phrases. The vast amount of unpublished information which is coming to light will surely form the basis for numerous articles, scholarly papers, PhD theses and perhaps the first definitive biography.
Epsilon is being used by the WCP's as its online archive of Wallace's correspondence. It replaces our previous archive, Wallace Letters Online, which was last updated in 2015. The process of editing the transcripts and associated metadata is a work in progress which will take many years to complete. Our project’s policy is, however, to make the information we have available to users at the earliest possible opportunity, even if it is incomplete and/or imperfect. For a guide to our data, including the protocols we use for metadata and transcriptions, please see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
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Poulton's lecture at Cape Town on Burchell and animal mimicry.
Is expecting Birch to stay so that he can work for 2 days at the museum.
His meeting with Frederick Birch. Discusses means of storing and conserving insect specimens.
Cannot sign Poulton's memorial because it makes several statements of opinion with which ARW does not agree.
Thanks Poulton for corrections he made.
About his date of birth and new book "a kind of pot-boiler".
About butterflies and house in Broadstone. Hard at work on "Astronomo-Biologoico-Physico book".
ARW seeks advice on behalf of young insect collector who wishes to travel abroad. Discusses possible regions - asks Poulton's opinion.
About arrangements for Poulton's visit. Thanks for information for young collector - discusses matter further.
About struggle for existence. Fred Birch.
Comments on Poulton's work. Mentions special collection illustrating mimicry. About exchanging books and Fred Birch.
About advance of £5 from Poulton to Birch. Sending books to Poulton. Papers for travelling naturalist.
Sending photos of himself, and butterfly papers. Aru Islands and wak-wak birds.
Inscription on book and photo, not wanting to blot the photograph.
About Poulton's address, Darwin, Darwinism and Max Müller. Discusses ideas regarding fertility, variation and sexual selection.
About theory of mutation, which Americans are taking up in place of Lamarckism.