Ɛpsilon

WCP3807

Letter (WCP3807.3724)

[1]

9. St. Mark's Crescent

Regent's Park. N.W.

Jany. 18th. 1869

Dear Dr. Hooker1

Thanks for the copy of the memorial,2 which I hope will not be forgotten when the British Museum comes to be moved and reconstituted.

I introduced Ethnology into my scheme for several reasons. It forms part at present of almost all local museums, and as it is certainly interesting and instructive I should have had more difficulty in justifying its omission altogether from a "Popular Museum" than its inclusion.

But I had another reason. [2] It is a very general opinion that Art Museums, à la South Kensington, are the things the people want, & while advocating the claims of Natural History I was glad to show that it might include a few typical illustrations of art.

It is no doubt going out of the sphere of a "Natural History Museum" to include art at all, but it is equally so to show any of the economic uses of natural products. Yet for a popular museum intended to give information to the very ignorant and excite their interest in Nature, [3] it would no doubt be advisable to exhibit these.

Believe me | yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Dr. J. D. Hooker

P.S. Feb. 9th.

I found this lying in my writing case & fear I forgot to send in you [sic] in reply & your kind remarks on my little Museum Article.3

ARW [signature]

1
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865-85. President of the Royal Society 1873-78.
2
Lyell drafted a memorial addressed to the Committee of the Council on Education to assist ARW's application for the directorship of the Bethnal Green Museum. The memorial was signed by Darwin, Richard Owen, Thomas Huxley and Roderick Impey Murchison. Henry Cole, the director of the South Kensington Museum, presented the Memorial before the Committee of the Council in 1872 but the funds allocated by the treasury for the museum were deemed insufficient to allow for a director position. See WCP2104.1994, WCP1885.4056 and WCP2286.2176.
3
Wallace, A. R. 1869. Museums for the people. Macmillan's Magazine 19 (111): 244-250.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP3807.3724)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Pearson, Keon [2013-07-29] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2019-12-20] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP3807,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3807