WCP6046

[1]

British Museum (Natural History)

Cromwell Road,

London: S.W.

Jan[uary]. 22, 1915

W. G. Wallace, Esq.

Culvercroft,

Hurstpierpont

Hassocks.

Dear Sir,

Mr Ogilvie-Grant has sent me your letter of Jan[uary]. 20, and I hope you will forgive me for venturing to make one or two remarks about it.

You know already, from what Mr Ogilvie-Grant has told you, that your late father's Journals are of special interest to us. You may not know to what extent we are interested. In Vol[ume]. II of "The History of the Collections contained in the...British Museum" (1906), you might find a summary of the Birds we possess from the Alfred Russel Wallace Collection, on pp. 504, 505. 2474 Birds from the Malay Archipelago are mentioned. In 1873 we acquired 27 Accipitres from Amazonia, while the remainder of the South American collection came into our possession on another occasion. 123 mammals are mentioned on p. 61 (E[ast]. Indian Archipelago) besides a number of Bats from the same region on p. 59. Among Insects your father's collection of Malayan cetonidae is in the Museum (p. 582) and most of the types of the Lepidoptera described by him (p. 589).

Our interest in the Journals is thus a very large one, and the scientific value of the specimens is naturally increased by any increase in the precision of our knowledge of the circumstances under which they were collected.

I quite realize, however, that your father's Journals are probably of exceptional interest, and are much more than the detailed record of facts of the ordinary collector. Perhaps you will allow me to point out that even from this point of view the Museum would form a worthy home for the Journals. The statue of Darwin which faces the visitor who enters the Museum occupies a dominating position, and is a sufficient indication of the fact that the Trustees have recognized the [2] importance of the principles which were of so much interest to your father and to Darwin. A number of the exhibits in the Central Hall are a further indication of this fact. I may also allude to the special exhibition which was instituted temporarily in the museum on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the publication of 'The Origin of Species'.

Your father had established a special connection with this museum, and it would give us great gratification if you were to decide that the National Collection is the proper place in which to find a home for his Journals. I might perhaps add that if you should come t this conclusion it would not be our wish to guard the contents of the Journals from other people. Should it be considered desirable to publish them, or parts of them, I do not think that we should be likely to wish to interpose any difficulties.

I remain | Yours very truly | S. F. Harmer [signature]

(Keeper of Zoology)