Ɛpsilon

WCP2911

Letter (WCP2911.2801)

[1]1

THE UNIVERSITY.

EDMUND STREET,

BURMINGHAM.

Telephone No. 68.

Nov. 10/1908

Dear Dr. Wallace

I hope that you will allow me to congratulate you, and Natural Science at large, on the award of the Copley Medal2 of the Royal Society, and the Order of Merit from the King.

I am never likely to forget the glorious times of the early Darwin3-Wallace period, and the enjoyment I had in the Malay Archepeligo4 & Island Life.5 The reading of the award in the newspapers is a happy & grateful reminder - how [2] enormous had been the advance of Biological Science within the last 50 years; and of how largely its freedom, enthusiasm & progress during that time have been due to the work and the advocacy of yourself and your colleagues.

I am sincerely yours | Charles Lapworth6 [signature]

1
In ARW’s handwriting, "Answd".
2
In 1908 Wallace was awarded the Royal honour of the Order of Merit, the Royal Society's Copley Medal "for outstanding achievement in any branch of science" and the Linnean Society of London's first Darwin-Wallace Medal for "major advances in evolutionary biology".
3
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
4
Wallace, A. R. 1869. The Malay Archipelago: The land of the orang-utan, and the bird of paradise. A narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature. London: Macmillan and Co. Two volumes.
5
Wallace, A. R. 1881. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. New York: Harper & brothers.
6
Lapworth, Charles (1878-1951). British socialist activist, journalist and film promoter. Editor of The Daily Herald (1912-1913).

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2911.2801)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Sherwood, Danni [2020-06-09] Transcription checked by Lo, Yen [2020-10-30] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP2911,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2911