ARW is going to Newcastle and would like to break the journey by staying with Mr and Mrs Meldola.
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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
ARW is going to Newcastle and would like to break the journey by staying with Mr and Mrs Meldola.
ARW has been invited to attend the "Darwin" meeting of the Linnean Society on Thursday next, can Meldola give him a bed and would he like to go with ARW?.
ARW is going to London next Tuesday (Oct 30) to attend Michael Davitt's lecture at St James's Hall, asks for a bed for the night.
Asks for copies of Presidential Address etc. Eyesight is very weak. Working hard in the autumnal garden. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Stead for their kind invitations. Huxley has been staying nearby.
ARW will be leaving for home on 5th June. Invites Meldola to stay on his way to the British Association for a few days. Suggests trains.
Train times. Look out for us at Woking. Has bought Willie a small zinc collecting box but a spare one will be useful for storing specimens. Mr Warburg has written about our cottage. Tell him to come and see it. ARW has written to him.
Will meet at Westminster Hall. Wants Meldola to check whether they can leave for refreshments.
Sorry for Meldola's cold. You must be careful for such things are not trifles. ARW is suffering from his eyes and can hardly read.
Invites Meldola to stay if he has made no other arrangements for Easter. They can go to see Stafford's Curiosity Shop on Monday and we have a hermit's cave to show him.
Unable to get room in Swanage they are in Weymouth. On the way, Mrs Wallace met a gentleman who recommended a place to stay in Lyndhurst, where they will stay from 23 August for two weeks - Laurel Cottage. Perhaps Meldola will come on Saturday and see about his lodging (60 St Thomas' St Weymouth).
A friend is coming on Thursday and Friday so ARW can't come to Meldola's meeting on Friday.
Requests a bed on Monday as ARW has engagements on Monday and Tuesday.
Has examination papers from 20 May to about 6 June. Your article on [Epping Forest] in Nature was far too mild. I trust that in Contemp., it will be hotter and stronger.
Shall be glad to see Meldola on Monday afternoon. Has a friend staying so can't offer him a bed. The Varleys called but I don't know if they saw anything. The Corporation of Godalming have to sue the Gas Company humbly to "enlighten their darkness"! The Swann lamps would go out and where they did not go out gave far less light than gas lamps!.
Would like Meldola to bring him a Great Western Railway timetable for the month when he visits.
Inviting Meldola to join him at Kew Gardens.
Asks Meldola to visit at the weekend and discusses moths.
Making arrangements to see Meldola.
Informs Meldola that another man has been appointed to a position and asks for thanks to be passed on to those who supported ARW.
Unable to visit Meldola due to illness.