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Wallace News Blog

New news and views on news, usually by George Beccaloni

More about Wallace's assistant Charles Allen

Edited by George Beccaloni on Wed, 25/04/2012 - 12:01

Dr Abigale Woods, an Historian of Medicine at Imperial College London, wrote to me to say:
“I just read your post from 2009, 'Musings on Wallace's Assistants, Charles Allen and Ali' [to read it CLICK HERE]. Very interesting, as I recently found out that my boyfriend's family are descended from Charles Allen's daughter, Amelia. The family lived in Singapore for several generations and had pretty eventful lives, only leaving in WWII.”

Abigale then sent the following interesting information she had discovered about Allen and his descendents, which she said I could share with readers of this blog:

"Charles Martin Allen's obituary is in The Straits Times newspaper, 7 July 1892 (see http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes18920707.2.20.aspx). It reads as follows:
“Mr. C. M. Allen of Perseverance Estate, Gaylang, died this morning, at 4.30. Mr. Allen came to the East in 1854 with Wallace author of  “The Malay Peninsula” [should be “Archipelago”] and with him went through Sarawak and Netherlands India. He afterwards took to tin mining and prospecting in the Carimons with Mr. Hartmann. He was a Collector and Magistrate at Klang 25 years ago. He explored the Malay Peninsula in the years 1870 to 1872 for Mr. Fisher, who, as a result, commenced the Galena Co., and the Chindrass Gold Co. He succeeded Mr. Fisher at Perseverance Estate, Gaylang, ten years ago as proprietor, and he continued to manufacture his well known essential oils up to the day of his death. He was an unassuming man of great and varied intelligence, well versed in Native matters, of a kindly disposition and never putting himself forward. He was well liked by all who knew him. He leaves a grown up family of eight children, and a devoted wife to mourne his loss. His son Charles who hasfor some time back managed the business will no doubt carry it on. The funeral takes place at 5.30 o’clock this afternoon.” 

Abigaile continues “The Perseverance Estate is mentioned in several histories of the region. It was founded by the wealthy Alsagoff family, and was a major source of citronella (lemon grass) and patchouli. It seems to have foundered around the turn of the 20th century.” [The estate is now a district of Singapore city (http://www.gomapper.com/travel/where-is/perseverance-estate-located.html) and is “considered to be the heart of the Muslim community in Singapore.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Singaporean)]

“Charles married a Christina Elizabette (apparently of French extraction) in 1860. The children I have identified are:
- William Martin (?)
- Elizabeth Christina (1864-1934, never married, died in Singapore)
- Amelia Allen (1865-1929), who married Joseph Gray (b. South Shields, 1853, joined the merchant navy, was briefly the 2nd mate on the Cutty Sark, eventually settled in Singapore and became the Pilot for Keppel Harbour). They had two children, from which my boyfriend, Nick Riches, is descended. The family fled to Australia when the Japanese invaded and eventually returned to England.
- John (1867-1914)
- Charles Henry (1868-1910)
- Annie Beatrice (b.1880, married Charles Walter Edwards in 1908). Her granddaughter has posted a story of their branch of the family at http://www.malayanvolunteersgroup.org.uk/node/353. They also fled to Australia in WWII.
- another daughter, later Mrs Bidwell”

Mystery gentleman identified!

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Tue, 17/04/2012 - 16:29

Rajah James BrookeAbout four months ago I asked readers of this blog whether anyone could identify the mystery gentleman in the image to the right (to read the original blog post click HERE). Well, Muhammad Ahmad contacted me to say he thought the sitter was none other than the illustrious 'white Rajah' of Sarawak Sir James Brooke - and he was absolutely right! I looked on the internet for images of Rajah Brooke and found a copy of exactly the same photo in the library of Swansea Museum - see http://www.swanseaheritage.net/article/gat.asp?ARTICLE_ID=1279

Thanks Muhammad for solving the mystery!

Publisher needed for important book on Wallace

Edited by George Beccaloni on Tue, 03/04/2012 - 09:28

World expert on Wallace, Prof. Charles Smith, who runs the excellent Wallace Page website, has nearly finished work on "an 'enhanced transcription' of the journal/diary Wallace kept during his ten-month North American lecture tour of 1886-1887." Charles explains:

"Wallace’s tour extended across the entire U. S. (he visited twenty-five or twenty-six different states) and a small portion of Canada.  By that point in his life (several years after the death of Darwin) he was, judging from contemporary reports, the most famous naturalist in the world. The journal itself is not a literary diary; it more resembles (not surprisingly) a naturalist’s field book. Still, it is filled with interesting impressions, notes, and even a few sketches."

He continues:

"I have been able to secure a DVD copy of the journal from its keeper, the Linnean Society of London, and have finished the transcription per se.  My collaborator [Megan Derr] and I are now in the process of working up the “enhancements.” These will include a route map, Introduction, general editorial notes on the text, fifty or more period photos, selections from newspaper and other coverage of the tour, excerpts from letters Wallace wrote and works he published during the trip, insertion of elaborations on the trip made in his autobiography My Life (1905), separate lists of plants he saw/collected and places he visited, and a sizable biographical appendix (Wallace identifies over 135 people he met for whom entries are even now to be found in major biographical compendia such as the DSB, Who Was Who, and the American National Biography).  More than five-sixths of this additional work is complete at this point."

Not only will Charles' and Megan's book be a very important addition to the primary literature about Wallace, but it should also appeal to those interested in first hand accounts of the landscape, people and institutions of late nineteenth century North America. Charles is currently looking for someone who could publish the book in time for the 2013 Wallace anniversary year, so if you happen to be a publisher and are potentially interested then please contact him at charles.smith@wku.edu Note that both Sir David Attenborough and Wallace scholar Lord Cranbrook have agreed to act as referees for the project. To see a detailed proposal for the book CLICK HERE.

PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO ANYONE YOU THINK MAY BE INTERESTED. 

Bill Bailey becomes Wallace Fund Patron!

Edited by George Beccaloni on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 08:57

Exciting news just in! The famous British comedian Bill Bailey has very kindly agreed to become the patron of the Wallace Memorial Fund! Bill is very interested in natural history and in South-East Asia and is a big fan of Wallace. In fact, such is his interest that he will be presenting a two part BBC series about Wallace which will be filmed this year in preparation for the anniversary next year. This programme should hopefully raise awareness of Wallace and his achievements more than anything else than has happened since Wallace's death in 1913!

Catalogue of the NHM's Wallace Family Papers now available

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Wed, 25/01/2012 - 23:45

A pdf manuscript catalogue of the Natural History Museum's Wallace Family Archive has been added to the WCP's database of documents, with permission from the NHM's library. This catalogue lists and describes the c. 5000 Wallace-related documents purchased by the Museum in 2002 from Wallace's grandsons. These records have been available for several years via the NHM Archive's online catalogue (see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/library/archives/catalogue/search.html and search for "wp*" in the FindingNo field), but it is far easier to browse through them in the pdf catalogue. Note that since 2002 about 1000 additional documents have been kindly donated by the Wallace family, or purchased from them, and added to the NHM's Archive, but the records for these are not yet available for public viewing. The pdf catalogue can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

Wallace's annotated copy of the 1858 Darwin-Wallace paper on natural selection

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Mon, 19/12/2011 - 12:26

Probably the historically most important of all enclosures to any of Wallace's correspondence in the Wallace Family Archive at the Natural History Museum, London, is an offprint of 1858 Darwin-Wallace paper on natural selection - the scientific article which launched the evolution revolution. This paper is widely regarded as being one of the most important scientific papers of all time, and what is special about the NHM's copy is that it was owned and annotated by Wallace. A pdf of this document is now available for the first time.....

To read the rest of this post and download a copy of the offprint, please CLICK HERE.

Alfred Russel Wallace's address books are now available for downloading

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Sat, 10/12/2011 - 22:52

If you are interested in downloading a copy of Alfred Russel Wallace's address books go to the Wallace Correspondence Project site, here - http://wallaceletters.info/content/alfred-russel-wallaces-address-books-are-now-available-downloading

Correspondents listed include Charles Darwin, Rajah James Brooke (ruler of Sarawak) and hundreds of other, many of whom were very famous at the time.

Volunteers needed to help the Wallace Correspondence Project at the NHM in London

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Thu, 08/12/2011 - 18:21

The Wallace Correspondence Project is looking for 2 enthusiastic volunteers to join their small team at the Natural History Museum, London, for one day a week, to assist with various project tasks.

The WCP is a three year project to locate, catalogue and summarise all known correspondence of the great Victorian naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace’s greatest claim to fame is that he was the co-discoverer of natural selection with Charles Darwin. The catalogue, plus scans of as many of the letters as possible, will be made available online free of charge.

We are looking for someone with;
- Good IT skills
- Attention to detail
- Experience of using databases
- Experience of cataloguing
- Interest in history of science/Victorian history
- Enthusiasm


If you are interested in applying, please send your CV or a summary of your experience, by email to Caroline Catchpole, WCP Archivist at c.catchpole@nhm.ac.uk. If interest is high, it is likely we will invite short listed candidates to come and meet the team for an informal chat and see the Wallace Collection in early January.


For more information about volunteering at the Museum, please see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/jobs-volunteering-internships/volunteering-interns-information/index.html

Alfred Russel Wallace's Last Will & Testament

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Tue, 06/12/2011 - 00:23

In 2010 Wallace's grandson John very kindly donated about 600 assorted documents which had belonged to his grandfather to the Wallace Family Archive at the Natural History Museum, London. Amongst them was a copy of ARW's will, which I have just finished creating a pdf version of. Since it makes quite interesting reading I have decided to make it available on the Wallace Correspondence Project website - click HERE to download the 3.48 MB pdf file.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) Wallace's wealth at the time of his death on 7th November 1913 was "£5823 0s. 6d.: probate, 24 Dec 1913, CGPLA Eng. & Wales"1. This amounts to about £250,738.38 (GBP) in today's money according to http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/default0.asp#mid It is interesting to contrast this with the wealth of his friend and colleague Charles Darwin. According again to the ODNB, Darwin's wealth when he died in 1882 was "£146,911 7s. 10d.: CGPLA Eng. & Wales, 1882"2, which equates to a whopping £7,097,270.41 (GBP) in today's money! Darwin's will can be seen here:- http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=YorkProbateSubRegistry&pageseq=1


References

1Charles H. Smith, ‘Wallace, Alfred Russel (1823–1913)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com.bicorn.nhm.ac.uk:2048/view/article/36700, accessed 5 Dec 2011]

2Adrian Desmond, James Moore, Janet Browne, ‘Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–1882)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com.bicorn.nhm.ac.uk:2048/view/article/7176, accessed 5 Dec 2011]

Can you identify this gentleman?

Submitted by George Beccaloni on Sat, 26/11/2011 - 10:54

Unidentified personI have been trying unsuccessfully to identify the sitter in the photo to the right and wondered whether anyone might recognise him? The image was scanned from a CDV (carte de visite) which Wallace owned and an inscription on the back reads "from a photograph by Mr Fry 1852" (Fry was a professional photographer). The CDV is clearly a copy of an earlier photo and it was produced by Wallace's brother-in-law Thomas Sims, also a professional photographer (details about his photographic studio are printed on the back). Interestingly, there is also a large version of this image in the Sims Archive at the Tunbridge Wells Museum - one of only a few photos they have from Sims. Someone had identified the sitter as Huxley, but it doesn't look like Huxley to me!

If you think you know who the chap is, then please contact me at g.beccaloni@nhm.ac.uk

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