WCP6131

Postcard (WCP6131.7089)

[1]1

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

REGENT’S PARK, N.W.8.

Oct[ober] 3 1938

Unofficially, I suggest that we wait until we obtain a large ♂2 Gorilla3.

J S Huxley4. [signature]

[2]5

W G Wallace6 Esq[uire]

Culver Croft

Hurstpierpoint

N[ota]. B[ene]. The return of the Prime Minister7 from Munich on Sep[tember] 30, where he had met Hitler8 & the announcement on Oct[ober] 1 that an Orang utan9 had been received at the Zoo — from Munich! prompted me to send a p[ost]. c[ard]. to D[octo]r Huxley suggesting ‘Adolf’ as an appropriate name for the new arrival — W[illiam]. G[reenell]. W[allace].10

1
The message side of the postcard is numbered WP1/9/57 in pencil in the top RH corner. "Dr Julian S. Huxley" is written in pencil in the top LH corner.
2
Male.
3
Gorilla is a genus of ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Lowland gorilla G. gorilla subspecies occur in Central West African countries and on the Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda border. Mountain gorilla G. beringei subspecies inhabit the mountains of Burundi, western Uganda and Tanzania.
4
Huxley, Julian Sorell (1887-1975) British evolutionary biologist and eugenicist, a proponent of natural selection and a leading figure in modern evolutionary synthesis (neo-Darwinian). He was secretary to the Zoological Society of London 1935-1942, running the society and the London Zoo and Whipsnade Park, alongside his writing and research. He was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley.
5
The address side of the post card bears the postmark "LONDON N.W.1.-3.X.38
6
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
7
Chamberlain, Arthur Neville (1869-1940) British Conservative Prime Minister 1937-1940. He signed the Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler (see Endnote 6) on 29 September 1938, conceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 the UK declared war on Germany, beginning World War II.
8
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945) Austrian-born German leader of the Nazi Party and Chancellor of Germany 1933-1945.
9
Two exclusively Asian species of great apes of the genus Pongo, currently found in only the rainforests of Borneo (P. pygmaeus) and Sumatra (P. abelii).
10
Written in pencil in the hand of the recipient W. G. Wallace along the LH edge of the postcard.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Postcard (WCP6131.7089)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP6131,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6131