WCP6164

Letter (WCP6164.7139)

[1]1

FROM E. B. POULTON, WYKEHAM HOUSE, OXFORD.

July 3 / 1920

Dear Mr Wallace2,

I see that I have not answered your kind letter of Apr[il]. 27th. & it may now be too late. I have been very much pressed with work, especially occasioned by some large breeding experiments with moths.

I should very much like to have the desk slope3 & shall value it highly for the associations. I would ask the Linnean Society4if they would like to have it &, if [2] it meets your wishes, would leave a note among my papers to ensure its going there. Or the Hope Department5 would value it highly in this case I would get a brass plate engraved to fix to it.

With kind regards, | Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton6 [signature]

N[ota]. B[ene]. The deskslope [sic] (A[lfred] R[ussel] W[allace]’s) was sent off by pass[enger]. train Nov[ember]. 22nd 1920 to Prof[essor]. E. B. P[oulton]. Oxford7

WGW

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/106 in pencil in the top LH corner.
2
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
3
The desk slope was a writing desk owned by ARW, which his son, the recipient offered to the author in memoriam.
4
A learned society founded in 1788 for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history, named in honour of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist.
5
The Hope Department of Zoology of the University of Oxford was established in 1860. In order to avoid any confusion with the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, the title 'Hope Department of Zoology' was modified to 'Hope Department of Zoology (Entomology)' in January 1934, to indicate the main work of the department. In 1978 it was integrated with the Department of Zoology. The Collections and Library remained in the University Museum and then came under the care of the Committee for the Scientific Collections with the title 'Hope Entomological Collections'.
6
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943) British evolutionary biologist, friend of ARW and lifelong advocate of natural selection. He did pioneering work on warning or protective colouration in animals and became Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford in 1893.
7
Annotation in ink in the hand of the recipient.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6164.7139)]

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]

Envelope (WCP6164.8387)

Envelope addressed to "W. G. Wallace Esq., Doveshill Farm, Ensbury Mount, Bournemouth", with stamp, postmarked "OXFORD | 3. —PM | 3 JUL 20". Note in ink on front in W. G. Wallace's hand reads "The Desk slope, 1865, 12/-". Note on back in pencil in same [?] hand reads "F. Winson Ramsay". [Envelope (WCP6164.8387)]

Please cite as “WCP6164,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6164