The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

Chris Hamilton, a PhD student from East Carolina University who is studying North American tarantulas (see his blog HERE), was over in London, UK this week examining spider specimens in the collection my wife Jan curates. Jan spotted the unusual tattoos on his arms and thought I might be interested. Although I'm not a big fan of tattoos I was certainly very impressed by Chris' excellent choice of subject - especially the one on his right arm. Chris says that Wallace is his right-hand man and that he had the tattoos done last summer as a present to himself for finishing his Masters degree.

I wonder if anyone else in the world has a Wallace tattoo? There are certainly lots of Darwin ones around (e.g. see http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/tag/darwin-tattoos/), but that's hardly surprising as there's lots of Darwin everything.

ARW in 1864/65

I have been slowly working on the scans of the Wallace family photos I mentioned in a recent blog post (see http://wallacefund.info/en/extraordinary-collection-wallace-photographs-discovered) and today I put 19 of them into the Image Galleries of this website. I also updated my catalogue (catalog in the USA) of Wallace photographs - which now contains 39 images (see http://wallacefund.info/en/catalogue-wallace-images).

Copies of all of the photos which feature Wallace from the recent find of family images are now on this website, but there are still a lot of other images of other family members, friends, colleagues etc, which I need to put on this site.

Of the batch of images I put on the site today, perhaps the most remarkable is one of Wallace dated to c. 1864/65, simply because early images of Wallace are rare and to 'discover' a new one is almost unheard of! There are also some rather unique and never before seen informal photos of Wallace.

Enjoy!

Today the UK Royal Mail issued a set of ten stamps commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society (the world's oldest and most prestigious scientific society). The stamps feature ten of the most important Fellows of the Society in its history, and one of the scientists so honoured is none other than Alfred Russel Wallace! Wallace was made a Fellow of the Society in 1893 and was awarded their very prestigious Copley, Darwin and Royal Medals for his scientific achievements.

There are many articles about the stamps on the Web (e.g. http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/news_archive/royal-society-350th-anniversary-stamps), so a lot more people will be getting to hear about Wallace. This is the first British stamps in history to depict Wallace and I was lucky enough to play a small part in the design - see http://wallacefund.info/en/r-wallace-be-featured-british-stamp 

The Welsh newspaper Western Mail published a nice article today about the sale of the house that Wallace was born in - see http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/02/18/call-for-national-trust-to-buy-scientist-wallace-s-home-91466-25858285/

As far as I know the house currently has no protection against alteration - so even if no one has the will or the means to buy it, it should really be given some protection ASAP. In Wales the body responsible for protecting historic buildings is Cadw, which is part of the Welsh Assembly Government (CLICK HERE for information about Cadw). Someone should inform Cadw about the historical significance of the house and ask them to consider it for listing - preferable at Grade I (the greatest protection), so that in the future no one can alter it any more than it has already been.

Kensington House, Alfred Russel Wallace's birthplace in Llanbadoc, near the town of Usk in Wales (UK) is currently up for sale for £525,000 (CLICK HERE to see the Estate Agent's advertisment). The house has been in the possession of the current owners for 17 years and very few people interested in Wallace have ever seen inside it. This is a rare opportunity for an organisation like the National Trust to buy the house, restore it to how it was when Wallace was born (1823), and open it to the public as the Wallace Birthplace Museum. There are Birthplace Museums in Britain commemmorating many people of much lesser historical importance than Wallace (e.g. Samuel Johnson - heard of him?), so why not a museum to one of the most famous people ever to have been born in what is now Wales?

This is what I say about the house in Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace, a book I co-edited with Charles Smith (note that a cheap paperback edition is about to be released - CLICK HERE for info.):-

"Kensington Cottage, Usk, Monmouthshire, England (8 January 1823-1828)

Alfred Russel Wallace was born in Kensington Cottage, Monmouthshire, England (originally Gwent, Wales--later Gwent again, and most recently Monmouthshire again, but as one of twenty-two “principal areas” of Wales) on the 8th of January 1823 to Thomas Vere Wallace and Mary Ann Wallace (née Greenell), a middle-class English couple of modest means. He was the eighth of nine children, three of whom did not survive to adulthood. Wallace’s father was of Scottish descent (reputedly, of a lineage leading back to the famous William Wallace), whilst the Greenells were a respectable Hertford family.

Kensington Cottage is situated beside the river Usk, half a mile or so from the town of Usk on a road leading to the village of Llanbadoc. Wallace lived here until he was about six and when he was in his 80s he could still remember “the little house and room we chiefly occupied, with a French window opening to the garden, a steep wooded bank on the right, the road, river, and distant low hills to the left.” He continues:

"The house itself was built close under this bank, which was quite rocky in places, and a little back yard between the kitchen and a steep bit of rock has always been clearly pictured before me…In the house, I recollect the arrangement of the rooms, the French window to the garden, and the blue-papered room in which I slept...so far as I remember, only one servant was kept [the cook], and my father did most of the garden work himself, and provided the family with all the vegetables and most of the fruit which was consumed. Poultry, meat, fish, and all kinds of dairy produce were especially cheap; my father taught the children himself; the country around was picturesque and the situation healthy..."

Wallace recalls fishing for small lampreys from large slabs of rock which jutted into the river Usk not far from the house. These had been flung into the river from a nearby stone quarry many years before. He also remembers seeing “men fishing in coracles, the ancient form of boat made of strong wicker-work, somewhat the shape of the deeper half of a cockle-shell, and covered with bullock’s hide.” Wallace was “half-baptised” on 19 January 1823 (in case he died suddenly) and fully baptised in the nearby Llanbadoc church on 16 February 1823.

Kensington Cottage (now named Kensington House) still survives, although there have been some structural alterations and the houses which used to be to either side of it have been demolished. The bank of the Usk in front of the house has been built up to protect against winter floods and on the part of the bank nearest the house is a metal bench with a stainless steel plaque dedicated to Wallace’s memory. No plaque has been put on the house itself as it is set back too far back from the road for one to be seen. On 20 May 2006 a monument sponsored by the Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund was unveiled by Wallace’s grandson Richard, outside the yard of Llanbadoc church not far from the cottage. The monument is made from Carboniferous limestone with fossils on its surface (best seen when the rock is wet) and it has a black granite plaque on it commemorating Wallace."

A nice article about the fact that the house is up for sale was published today in the South Wales Argus newspaper - see http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/5010377.Time_to_recognise_scientific_pioneer/

Kensington House as it was about 5 years ago. Copyright G. Beccaloni.

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.