The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

Many readers of this blog will have heard about the Dutch TV series called Beagle: On the future of species, which is currently  being produced by the Dutch broadcasting company VPRO and is retracing the Beagle voyage using a Clipper called Stad Amsterdam (see http://beagle.vpro.nl/#/talen/item/12/). The series is divided into 35 episodes two of which are devoted to Wallace and his relationship with Darwin - especially with regard to the joint publication of their theory of natural selection. Last year the VPRO team came over to the UK to film me for one of these episodes in the Rare Books Room of the Natural History Museum (where the Wallace Family Archive is kept). They actually filmed me on two separate occasions as they weren't happy with the job the first film crew had done, and I had assumed that quite a lot of what I said would be shown in the resulting programme. Well, perhaps not! One of the producers wrote to me yesterday to say "I am sorry to let you know that there is not much left of you onscreen, after the editing of the 2 Wallace-episodes: we see your arm, your hand and one of the drawers you are showing us." Oh, well, my hopes of spreading the word about Wallace to the Dutch speaking peoples of this world have sadly been dashed.... Most of the commentary will now probably be by the well known travel writer Redmond O'Hanlon, who is one of the resident presenters aboard the Stad Amsterdam. If so then I hope that what he says is somewhat more accurate than his account of Wallace's life which I watched on a video the VPRO Beagle's website (see http://beagle.vpro.nl/#/video/item/4215/). At least Redmond greatly admires Wallace - although, perhaps more as an excellent travel writer and adventurer, than as a brilliant scientist who deserves 50% of the credit for the great idea of our age - evolution by natural selection! To be fair, I guess that Redmond has to be somewhat careful about what he says about Darwin, as anything negative could result in him having to walk the plank!

In addition to the film crew, VPRO also sent a journalist to the UK to interview me for an article for the VPRO TV guide. This has just been published and an electronic copy of it is available on the VPRO Beagle website - see http://beagle.vpro.nl/#/blog/item/3150/ It is written in Dutch of course, and is therefore Double Dutch to me! (Ha Ha) However, I ran it through Google Translations and the English which resulted is almost intelligible (please see below). The article is quite entertaining, but I'm sure the English translation has reduced the amount of irony which it seems to be full of!

Here's the translation:

Beagle 22 messages: Wallace Kites

The Natural History Museum in London operates the rottweiler "George Beccaloni the scientific legacy of the other creator of the theory of evolution: Alfred Russel Wallace. "Some people worship Darwin as a god and try Wallace 'share minimum. I think that falsification of history. "

By Katja de Bruin

There is no better place to Darwin's evolution theory in its full glory to you to penetrate than the Natural History Museum in London. This huge building houses almost every miracle of creation. From the smallest to the largest dinosaur beetle, they are all represented here.

The so-called Faith Room, near the back entrance, where "people of all faiths can find a moment of peace", seems somewhat misplaced, but perhaps is intended for visitors who finally fall from their faith to give some privacy.

The Natural History Museum is not just a museum, but also a scientific institute, where more than one hundred researchers work. One of them is George Beccaloni entomologist, Head of cockroaches, termites, earwigs, grasshoppers, stick insects and crickets.

But the man who the scientific legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace to the museum brought and since then 'Wallace' rottweiler 'calls. He is working tirelessly for revaluation of Wallace, who became quickly forgotten after his death, but to live by Beccaloni the most famous scientist in the world.

His book, The Malay Archipelago, Published in 1869 and the favorite book by Joseph Conrad (and Redmond O'Hanlon, as last week was to read this guide), is still reprinted, but that's for advanced reading. Most people simply have no idea who was Alfred Wallace. All the more reason for his legacy, which is preserved in this museum, but not publicly accessible, look at it.

Neglected grave
Who has an appointment with a member of the Natural History Museum, will face an unlikely strict press service. Not one but two people, escorting us to the Rare Books Room. There is a sacred silence. The reading table awaits us George Beccaloni. Introductions are so soft that nobody whispered understand each other, but in this room stemverheffingen be appreciated.

In goose we follow yet another new museum employee to the hall where the Wallace Collection is stored. Here is the art collection of the museum kept, according Beccaloni the world's largest natural history field. Heavy green curtains eliminate any indent daylight. In a dark corner adorned with a beautiful wooden cabinet, a replica of the cabinet that a brother of Alfred Wallace ever made to his precious books and prepared insects safe to store.

The original case is still in family hands. One by one, the glass doors unlocked, then the key holder to withdraw until further notice. If not the journalists. These flank Wallace "rottweiler while standing on the box tells how in 1998 he went to Dorset to find the grave of his hero. To his horror he could not find it anywhere. Eventually it turned violent neglected and overgrown with weeds. The plaque with Wallace 'name on it was only visible from the towering conifer above the grave. The roots of the same conifer were busy further ruin the grave. Shame, took Beccaloni.

Here was indeed one of Britain's greatest scientists ever buried. The grafrechten appeared to rest with the two grandsons of Wallace. George sprokkelde some one thousand pounds together and asked the two elderly gentlemen for permission to restore the tomb.

That is why we stand for this case. For the descendants of Wallace appeared to have an impressive collection of stuff from their grandfather: notebooks, letters, books and hundreds of insects prepared on its long journeys he collected. "She had that combination already offered at the University of Cambridge, where the Darwin collection is largely preserved, but that was not interested." Beccaloni said with audible bitterness, he draws the indifference with which Wallace is treated in England.

Due respect
And while he had greatness in life. "I think I can make him the most famous scientist in the world when he died. His death was news to newspapers around the world. " He picks up a folder in which the obituaries that have appeared at the time of Wallace, are collected. "Simple funeral for a great man" and "The Last Great Victorian 'Copts newspapers then. "Immediately after his death a group of scientists trying Wallace in Westminster Abbey, where Darwin is, to lend," says Beccaloni, "which is a huge honor, but Wallace had indicated just to the local cemetery to be buried . "

It marks the difference between Darwin and Wallace. In another life she considered high. Not for nothing was wearing Wallace The Malayan Archipelago to Darwin. Beccaloni stores the copy of Wallace himself open with due respect: "To Charles Darwin, author of On the Origin of Species, I dedicate this book, not only as a token of personal esteem and friendship, but also to express my admiration for his genius and his works. "

Darwin in turn meant that Wallace, who could handle bad with money, received a state pension. "That was very unusual," explains Beccaloni out, "only people with exceptional services to the British Empire was eligible for consideration. Darwin presented together with some fellow scientists petitioned the government for Wallace to grant such a pension. This is ultimately successful, because Darwin had many influential connections. "

Great value
On July 1, 1858 was a tiny bundle of essays presented to the authoritative Linnean Society of London. Authors: Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. Both men put their minds set on it the emergence of new species through the process of natural selection. Hasten gently takes out a plastic folder Beccaloni the brown booklet appeared at that time and so much wrought by Darwin himself was sent to Wallace, who was still wandering in the Malay archipelago.

"This," he said with pathos, "is without doubt the most precious piece from the collection. It is invaluable and is certainly more than one million po ... " "Oh no George," Press Officer Claire grabs in shocked, "I'm sorry I just interrupt you, but we do not talk about amounts. Let's just remember that this document has great scientific value. "

Deals with equal reverence Beccaloni the pencil sketches that Wallace made in Brazil for several species, and those rescued from the sinking ship him after five years traveling through South America should have brought back to England. After 28 days at sea fire broke out on the ship. In a leaky lifeboat was Wallace in a letter report of this disaster to his friend Richard Spruce. He writes how the captain came in his hut, saying: "I'm afraid the ship is on fire. Come and see what you think of it. "

When Wallace was convinced of the seriousness of the situation, he rushed back to his cabin to save what can be salvaged. That was precious little. Only a few sketches he did in a pewter look to stuff and take. Wallace Ten days bobbing around on a lifeboat, knowing that all he had collected the previous five years, was lost.

The letter to his friend Spruce deliberate lies, dirty splashes of seawater, for us. That which has been preserved is incredible, especially when you see what address is on the envelope is: Richard Spruce, Rio Negro. Although the Rio Negro over 700 kilometer long, the letter reached Spruce, who later would take back to England.

Hopeless manuscript
Equally impressive, but for quite different reasons, the following letter appeared Beccaloni gets. "In that time they wrote to save paper often in multiple directions," he explains, "horizontally and vertically." The result is a mathematically-looking but totally untrained eyes unreadable screed.

Also Darwin's letters were illegible. "He had a hopeless handwriting," sighs Beccaloni, who misses no opportunity to stress that even Darwin was a man. Earlier, he said almost triumphantly true that Wallace could draw beautifully, the sketches of Darwin simply "rubbish" were.

To prove that Darwin set great store by the opinion of Wallace, he cites a letter from Darwin which appeared the help of Wallace recourse to solve a scientific question about bright colors in the animal kingdom. Darwin believed that sexual function had a primary, Wallace discovered that color but also served as a warning. This allowed the birds to see which color butterflies were poisonous.

"People often think that Wallace was primarily a commercial collector," says Beccaloni. "It is true that he paid for travel by the animals he caught selling. He has during his tour through Southeast Asia about 126,000 specimens shipped to England. Especially butterflies, birds and insects but also mammals and reptiles. For example, he shot five p.m. orang-utans. They were an agent for a lot of money sold to museums and private collectors. But he was the first scientist who has made very interesting discoveries. "

In 2002 one of the grandsons of Wallace during the cleaning of the attic a forgotten box of belongings from his grandfather. Besides valuable letters were found in the box several hundred insects to be prepared, particularly beetles and butterflies. Beccaloni attracts one of the drawers in the cabinet open. We see butterflies in iridescent colors, dozens in a row. In another drawer are impressive beetles and stick insects.

They look like they caught yesterday, but nothing is further from the truth. "They were in a miserable condition," sighs Beccaloni, "I spent months in order to glue them back together. That got me even a serious lung infection brought by the pesticides used to time the larvae to fight. "

Darwin Industry
In 2013 hopes Beccaloni that there are a museum dedicated to tentoontstelling Wallace will be dedicated in honor of his hundredth anniversary. It is intended that all correspondence be accessible online. Wallace will still receive the same status as Darwin already has Beccaloni does not happen, but he hoped that such exhibition in any case, for any rehabilitation.

How does he explain that Wallace, who lives in all who received awards for scientific merit had not yet one hundred years after his death was virtually forgotten, while Darwin now fridge magnets and bottle openers are sold?

"Darwin after the First World War as the great discoverer of natural selection put forward, and there has not arisen to say that he had published theory with Wallace. Since then, the Darwin industry have increased. Last year, the floodgates were wide open course. It appeared literally hundreds of books on Darwin. Some people worship him as a god and Wallace's part try to minimize. I think that falsification of history. As a scientist I try to be as accurate as possible, but some historians are trying to rewrite history. This has led historians distrust me, because if this is wrong, why should other history or true?

Conspiracy theory
Wallace for the rabid supporters trying to prove his theory of evolution that Darwin himself has not simply invented by him but Wallace has stolen, has Beccaloni but not much sympathy. "I do not think so in that conspiracy. In science a theory counts only when officially published and there is no reason to believe that Darwin Wallace has framed it. "

Press Officer Claire is now enough. "George could of course go on for hours, because it is his passion, but you'll now know enough and we have to do more." The cabinet is closed and we can not even walk around without supervision in the new Darwin Experience exhibition. As we see on a screen George Beccaloni, who, wearing a beautiful butterfly tie, in a short video message to Wallace Alfred is trying to escape oblivion. Strolling along the public has little interest. We see here later in the gift shop with considerably more enthusiasm in grabbing a bowl of Darwin Key. Wallace-souvenirs to search in the museum shop in vain. But with both men to do justice, to the site of the Wallace-fund T-shirts, bags and mugs for sale which the bearded heads of both Darwin and Wallace have been immortalized. Thanks to rottweiler Beccaloni.

> More news about Wallace is available on the site that maintains George Beccaloni about him: wallacefund.info  

---
Royal Mail
On February 25 last, the British presented a set of ten PTT opportunity stamps that were released to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, British Academy of Sciences. A.R. Wallace is one of ten scientists who shines on such a special seal. He is in the company of others including Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and Nicholas Shackleton. Darwin was beaten, he was last year, more than enough own stamps.

PS. 16/03/2010. I found the original version of the above article here: http://noorderlicht.vpro.nl/artikelen/43215972/

Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace, a book about Wallace which I co-edited with Charles Smith, has just been released in paperback form - see http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/science/9780199239177.do?zoneCode=HPZC001 It was first published as a hardback in 2008 and I presume it must have sold well enough for the publishers (Oxford University Press) to decide to bring out a paperback edition. The book is described in the advertising blurb as follows: "This rich collection of writings by more than twenty historians and scientists reviews and reflects on the work that made Wallace a famous man in his own time, and a figure of extraordinary influence and continuing interest today." and if you want a copy then it is available for only £16.54 on Amazon - see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Selection-Beyond-Intellectual-Wallace/dp/0199239177/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268469306&sr=1-3  I notice, however, that the hardback has come down in price and is now only around £24 on Amazon (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0199239169/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1268469306&sr=1-4&condition=new), so it might be worth buying this edition instead! The only aspect of the paperback edition which is better, is that a number of minor errors which were present in the original edition have been corrected by Charles and I.

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.