The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

In October 2009 Wallace's grandson Alfred John Russel Wallace discovered an important collection of documents which had belonged to his illustrious grandfather in the attic of his house. The majority of these were generously donated to the Natural History Museum's Wallace Family Archive, which already has most of the documents which the grandsons inherited from Wallace via their father William (this large collection was purchased by the NHM from the family in 2002). Amongst the items recently found by John are an amazing collection of about 90 photographs which the family understandably wishes to keep. There are some pictures of Wallace, but most are photos of his family, friends and colleagues -very few of which have ever been published or seen by the public before.

John and Richard Wallace have generously given the Wallace Memorial Fund permission to produce high resolution scans of these images and make them available on this website for study and to raise much needed funds for Wallace Fund projects. The scans will be put into the Image Galleries on this website over the next few weeks, but as a taster I am making four of the most interesting pictures available today. These are shown below and are as follows:

1) A hand-coloured cdv image of Wallace taken by his brother-in-law Thomas Sims in about 1862. Previously only a black and white version of this well known image (which was first published in Marchant in 1916) was known.

2) Wallace in his LL.D. robes. He was awarded an LL.D. from Dublin University in 1882, but no image of him wearing his robes has previously been made publically available. Wallace recieved two honorary doctorates - this one, plus one from Oxford University in 1889. This photograph is a cdv by Dublin photographer Geo. Mansfield. The image was somewhat damaged so I have restored it.

3) An informal portrait of Wallace with his wife Annie and their daughter Violet by an unknown photographer. This is one of the few informal portraits of ARW known and the only one I remember seeing him smiling in!

4) A cdv portrait of George Silk by an unknown photographer. This is the only image I have ever seen of George Silk - Wallace's closest childhood friend. Wallace met George in Hertford in about 1828 when Wallace was only about five years old. In his autobiography My Life, he describes how he came to meet George shortly after moving into a new house:

The house was "...the first of a row of four at the beginning of St. Andrew's Street, and I must have been a little more than six years old when I first remember myself in this house, which had a very narrow yard at the back, and a dwarf wall, perhaps five feet high, between us and the adjoining house. The very first incident which I remember, which happened, I think, on the morning after my arrival, was of a boy about my own age looking over this wall, who at once inquired, "Hullo! who are you?" I told him that I had just come, and what my name was, and we at once made friends. The stand of a water-butt enabled me to get up and sit upon the wall, and by means of some similar convenience he could do the same, and we were thus able to sit side by side and talk, or get over the wall and play together when we liked. Thus began the friendship of George Silk and Alfred Wallace, which, with long intervals of absence at various periods, has continued to this day."

1). ARW in c. 1862 aged c. 39, soon after his return from the Malay Archipelago. Copyright Wallace Memorial Fund.	2). Wallace in his LLD robes in 1882. Copyright Wallace Memorial Fund.
3). Alfred Russel Wallace, his wife Annie and their daughter Violet. Copyright Wallace Memorial Fund.	4). George Silk, childhood friend of Alfred Russel Wallace. Copyright Wallace Memorial Fund.

Alfred Russel Wallace will at long last be featured on a Royal Mail stamp! His friend and colleague Darwin has of course appeared on countless stamps (most of which were published this year), but Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection, has only once been featured on a set of stamps and that was issued by a country he never even visited (to see these stamps CLICK HERE)!

The new Wallace stamp will be issued on the 25th February 2010. It was produced to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society - a great honour indeed, especially considering that Darwin wasn't selected! Wallace was made a (reluctant!) Fellow of the Royal Society in 1893 and was awarded their prestigious Copley, Darwin and Royal Medals for his scientific achievements.

The stamp will feature a 'split design', with an image of Wallace below the image of an oak tree. Many months ago the designers contacted me to ask my opinion of their prototype design - which featured an ammonite fossil above Wallace's portrait. I told them that Wallace didn't really have much to do with fossils and that they might consider a gnarled leafless oak tree instead, as this would symbolise the great tree of life. Wallace was, of course, the first modern evolutionist to publish the tree of life analogy. In his famous 1855 'Sarawak Law' paper (see http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S020.htm) he says that the relationships between species are  "...a complicated branching of the lines of affinity, as intricate as the twigs of a gnarled oak or the vascular system of the human body. Again, if we consider that we have only fragments of this vast system, the stem and main branches being represented by extinct species of which we have no knowledge, while a vast mass of limbs and boughs and minute twigs and scattered leaves is what we have to place in order, and determine the true position each originally occupied with regard to the others, the whole difficulty of the true Natural System of classification becomes apparent to us."

 
Here is the Royal Mail Press Release which mentions the Wallace stamp:-

'BRAINSTORMING’ SCIENCE STAMPS MARK ROYAL SOCIETY’S 350TH ANNIVERSARY

News Release
PON
2 December 2009

Royal Mail is set to issue a radical split-stamp design to celebrate the 350th anniversary of The Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. The ten 1st Class stamps, issued on 25 February, feature ten significant Royal Society figures whose portraits are paired with dramatic and colourful imagery representing their achievements. The 'brainstorming' design was the idea of Hat-trick Design, responsible for the interlocking 'jigsaw' approach used for 2009's Darwin stamps. But with more than 1,400 Fellows and Foreign Members to choose from, how were ten significant scientific figures to be selected? Fittingly, it was The Royal Society itself which suggested the solution: a case of basic division. It was agreed to split the 350-year history into ten 35-year 'blocks' in which it could be demonstrated how, through the work of its Fellows, The Royal Society has had a major impact on the World. Royal Mail consulted with experts from the Society to determine the ten Fellows, and due to the global nature of the organisation, non UK citizens were included, such as one of the United States' Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, and the New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Julietta Edgar, Head of Special Stamps, Royal Mail said: "It has traditionally been a challenge for designers to seek innovative ways to feature an individual and 'tell their story' at the same time. "The contrast of black and white portraits and eye-catching use of scientific imagery has resulted in a spectacular and thought-provoking design." Ends

Issued by Aawaz Communications on behalf of Royal Mail Tel 020 7404 6064 Email: khollingsworth@aawazltd.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

Founded in 1660, The Royal Society celebrates its 350th anniversary in 2010 and as the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth. It maintains its position at the forefront of enquiry and discovery, and at the cutting edge of scientific progress. The backbone of the Society, which is a charitable body, is its Fellowship of the most eminent scientists of the day, and there are currently more than 60 Nobel Laureates amongst the Society's Fellows and Foreign Members, of which there are more than 1,400.

To this day, Fellowship of The Royal Society is one the greatest honours that can be conferred on any scientist.

The Royal Society still supports many top young scientists, engineers and technologists, and continues to influence science policy and stimulating debate on scientific issues with the public.

Images of the Royal Society stamps and biographies of those featured on them are available by telephoning Kathryn Hollingsworth at Aawaz Communications on 0207 404 6064 or via e-mail from khollingsworth@aawazltd.com

Stamps and stamp products are available at all Post Offices, or online at www.royalmail.com/stamps and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

The Royal Society Stamps

Thanks to Michael Barton for the heads-up about this Press Release!

As mentioned in a post on this blog a few days ago, Fred Langford Edward's exhibition "Alfred Russel Wallace: The Forgotten Evolutionist" is currently on display in Cambridge University's Zoology Museum. It is on until the 8th February 2010 and admission is free, so please do try to visit.

For more information about it see my earlier blog post HERE. Also see THIS interesting article on the BBC Cambridgeshire's website, plus Fred's excellent new website HERE.

Detail of feathers of a male Greater Bird of Paradise collected by Wallace. Copyright Cambridge University Zoology Museum & Fred Langford Edwards.

You Should Ask Wallace

A unique, interactive, one-man show about the inspirational man, Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of Natural Selection.

Performed by Ioan Hefin and written and directed by Geinor Styles, this performance focuses on the aspects of Alfred Russel Wallace’s inspirational character that led him to think up the idea of evolution by natural selection. When Darwin was stumped for an answer to why certain species were the way they were, the advice given to him was - “You should ask Wallace”.

A R Wallace – The Forgotten Evolutionist
An exhibition by Fred Langford Edwards.
5th November 2009 – 8th February 2010.
University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge University, UK
For more information see http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/museum/events/

At the first public reading of the Wallace and Darwin papers on natural selection on 1 July 1858 the two men were given equal status and recognition. However, whilst Darwin is celebrated, Wallace has faded from the popular history of scientific thought.

This exhibition is part of a Wellcome Trust funded project to research and promote the contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace to the theory of evolution by natural selection. Working with Dr George Beccaloni of the Natural History Museum, Fred Langford Edwards has explored many university and public collections of natural history, and made two extended research visits to the Amazon Basin and the Malay Archipelago. The resulting work explores the life, ideas, and surviving collections of Wallace, and the physical hardships he endured during his travels.

The Natural History Museum (London, UK) has just put two videos I 'starred' in on its website - see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/biographies/wallace/index.html [Wallace] and http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/biographies/charles-darwin/index.html [Darwin]

The videos were made for the historical collections section of the Cocoon tour in the Museum's new and spectacular Darwin Centre 2 building http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/darwin-centre-visitors/cocoon/index.html (I did try to get them to name it the Wallace building, but they weren't convinced!)

I have just seen that the book I edited last year with Charles Smith (Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace) is now on Google Books and quite a lot of the text is available. Click HERE to see the book.

Happy reading!

Another of the plaques produced by the Wallace Fund has been unveiled - this time in Broadstone, Dorset, the town where Wallace built his house Old Orchard and where he died in 1913. The following article was copied from the Bournemouth Daily Echo website (http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4571490.Plaque_marks_links_of_evolution_pioneer/):

Plaque marks links of evolution pioneer

7:00pm Friday 28th August 2009

By Jim Durkin

CONNECTIONS: Annette Brooke MP, with husband Mike, unveils a plaque to mark Alfred Russel Wallace’s links to Broadstone.

NORTH Poole MP Annette Brooke has unveiled a plaque commemorating the work of revolutionary biologist and former Broadstone resident Alfred Russel Wallace.

Wallace, who is credited with co-discovering the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, lived in Broadstone for 11 years until his death in 1913.

The plaque, unveiled at Broadstone Library, commemorates the 150th anniversary of his scientific works.

Mrs Brooke said: “Lots of people feel that Wallace came up with the idea first, and the scientific world later recognised his contribution.”

It was Darwin’s groundbreaking Origin of Species that turned the scientific community, the church and wider society on its head.

But Wallace’s paper, written after years of Malaysian Archipelago and Amazon jungle exploration, is recognised as a seminal work in evolutionary science.

In fact, Wallace and Darwin’s papers, published to the influential Linnean Society in 1858, predated Darwin’s solo Origin of Species by months.

However, it was not until 1908 that Wallace gained full recognition for his contribution to the theory, when he was presented with the Linnean Society’s gold medal. Mrs Brooke said: “We are really thrilled about this, as the plaque is a limited edition with only about 20 across the world.

“It is really nice to celebrate the achievements of a local resident. He was almost an unsung hero.

“He didn’t have the background Darwin had, so to do all that travel from a fairly ordinary background was just amazing,” she added.

The plaque was sponsored by Broadstone Residents Association and donated by the Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund.

Wallace is buried in Broadstone Cemetery.

Roy Davies author of the controversial book The Darwin Conspiracy informs me that the book is now available as a free pdf file, which can be downloaded from http://www.darwin-conspiracy.co.uk/

The most detailed critique of the book that I am aware of is by creationist (!) Todd Charles Wood and can be read here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/contents/379/arj/v2/No_Darwin_Conspiracy.pdf

Davies' detailed response to Wood's criticism can be read here: http://wallacefund.info/en/node/1790/152#comment-152

Darwin and Wallace: the true story
SAGE (Southeast Asian Gateway Evolution) Special Guest Lecture

Dr John van Wyhe, University of Cambridge

Wednesday 16th September 2009, 6.30 – 7.30 pm
Windsor Building Auditorium, Royal Holloway University of London

The theories of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace have changed science, and the world, forever. Yet much of what is often written about these two men, their similarities and differences, and their debts to one another, is wrong.

It has recently been claimed, for example, that Darwin stole many of his ideas from Wallace. For many years it has also been claimed that if Wallace had not sent his essay on evolution to Darwin in 1858 that Darwin never would have published his theory. This presentation will revisit the true story of Darwin and Wallace and rebut several common myths.

This is a special evening lecture associated with the SE Asian Gateway meeting (http://sage2009.rhul.ac.uk/) for Life and Earth Scientists at Royal Holloway. It is free and open to the public but there is a limited number of seats. If you would like to attend, please request a ticket, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, by sending an email to: darwinwallacerhul@googlemail.com