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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
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Transmission and payment for Home News; (Sims's) advertisements for photographic portraits on enamel opal glass and paper; insects and box of heavy clothes sent home; plan to visit California; funny Chinese pictures.
Sims's business, engraving technique; eagerness for departure to the East; sore [foot]; description of Singapore street scene and mixture of nationalities including Kling (Chettiar) tradesmen.
ARW is at Peninjau with James Brooke, Spenser St John and his brother (page 1) but is about to leave soon, which causes Brooke to give a pleasing character description (page 5), in a letter otherwise full of domestic and political detail about Sarawak.
Departure from Sarawak, leaving Charles behind; admirable character of Sir James Brooke; slow healing of injured foot; good collection of insects in Borneo; Sims' photography business; Fenton's Crimea photographs; justification of Crimean war.
Talks of administrative matters. Tells of some collection that left by the Water Lily Singapore on 5th March including, orang skins and skulls, ferns and insects bird and mammal skins, shells, reptiles and directs Stevens what should be done with these collections.
Delayed expedition to Macassar; Christian missionaries, particularly French Catholics in China and elsewhere, missionary social work, religious doctrine.
Long wait for and final arrival of a ship to Macassar; arrival of Bates' letters from Ega (now Teffé) Brazil, and copy of Zoologist; geographical distribution of insect species in the islands of the Malay archipelago; relative scarcity of Lepidoptera; comparative numbers and types of insect species in Malay archipelago and Brazil; details of insects collected, including new butterfly Ornithoptera Brookeana (Wallace), Rhyncophorae, Carabidae, Anthribidae, Bupestridae, Cleridae, Longicornes and many others, total number of insect species collected estimated at 6,000, specimens over 30,000; desire to collect all world Longicornes for study; importance of recording location of capture of specimens; separation of collections from different localities; desire for future comparison of data and exchange of specimens with Bates; Orang Utans; comparison of types of forest plants, people and customs in Amazon and Malay archipelago; scarcity of edible fruit in the East; delicious Durian; Madame Pfeiffer's insect collection; regards to Spruce.
Talks of the difficulties he has had in getting to Macassar and his preparations he has made for collecting once he arrives there. He is sending two cases to Stevens - one full of books which he wants to sell and the other full of monkey skins, shells, insects for sale as well as insects, birds and monkey skull for private collection. Also some items addressed to Mrs Wallace and Mr Sims. Encloses a letter for forwarding to Bates.
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Mentions lack of insects to be found in the area in the dry season and attributes this to the cultivation of this area. Has had more success in collecting birds. The birds in this area "throw great light on the laws of Geographical distribution of Animals in the East". He is preparing a short account of his theory for publication. His bird collection amounts to 68 species of which about 20 are not found to the west of the island. Goes on to describe the land and its cultivation. Details some specimens he is sending to Singapore for shipping home (includes birds for sale, butterflies, beetles and land and fresh water shells). Offers the domestic duck to Darwin as well as the jungle cock.
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One of a set of letters providing in-depth descriptions John Wallace's life in the gold mining town of Columbia, California, building a system to bring water to gold mining operations in the town.
Talks of his arrival in Celebes [Sulawesi] and describes very sparse land. There are some woods (patch of about 6-8 miles) and he has found some birds and butterflies but no beetles. Talks of the difficulties collecting here being similar to that of the Amazon. Good collection of birds, including an abundance of Raptorial birds - the first place he has found these in the Archipelago. Collected over 40 species of bird, which he believes include some new species. Then talks of local traditions and some administrative matters.
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Arrival of letters from home; birth of first niece or nephew; expense of Sims's rent and financial burden to his mother; departure for Aru in two days time; diet on Aru, list of food stores to be taken, scarcity of fowl, will eat Birds of Paradise and Kangaroo; friends and family; Eliza Roberts's moustache.