The Australian Museum based in Sydney has put electronic copies of two letters from AR Wallace to the highly respected conchologist, Charles Hedley, on their website.

The letters, one from July and the other from October 1892, are in response to letters and papers that Charles Hedley delivered to Wallace at his home in Parkstone, Dorset. 

The reference in the later letter of October 1892 regarding the enclosure on the Placostylus (a type of air-breathing land snail) as well as the debate surrounding the ‘land-connection’ between New Zealand and Australia makes it highly likely that the enclosure was Hedley’s ‘The Range of Placostylus; a study in ancient geography’ as Hedley refers to Wallace’s Island Life work and the fact that ‘Australia and New Zealand were formerly connected by a bridge of dry land’ within it (pp. 336-7). Wallace also references his The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876) within the letter. ‘In the second of these letters,’ explained Vanessa Finney, the Manager of Archives and Records at the Museum on their blog, ‘Wallace hotly disputes Hedley’s theory of the range and distribution of [Placostylus].’

The earlier letter from July 1892 is harder to pin-point in regards to which paper Wallace is referencing. Nonetheless, Vanessa Finney clarifies that this letter refers to Hedley’s recently published ‘The Land Molluscan Fauna of British New Guinea.’ In it Wallace mentions the orchids Hedley encountered and expressed a desire to have some samples of the plant as he was ‘pretty interested’ in this field.  Wallace also believes that Hedley’s work ‘agrees, to some extent, with my theory of the cause of the diversity of the flora & fauna of West & East Australia, as given in my Island Life [published in 1881]’

Interestingly, Hedley later published another article in 1893, ‘On the Relation of the Fauna and Flora of Australia to Those of New Zealand’, which may have taken on board some of Wallace’s comments. A quick scan of this article reveals that Hedley once again mentions Wallace’s theory expounded in Island Life and refers again to the ‘profusion of epiphytic orchids’ (p. 189).

Charles Hedley (1862-1926) was, at this time, Assistant in Zoology at the Australian Museum as well as being a Fellow of the Linnean Society in London and New South Wales. Hedley was originally born in Yorkshire and was largely educated in France. However, he moved to New Zealand in 1881, moving onto Queensland in late 1882. 

As Denis Fairfax’s entry for Hedley in the Australian Dictionary of Biography explained, ‘Typical of self-taught nineteenth-century naturalists, Hedley wrote confidently on botany, ethnology and general natural history, as well as conchology.’ Clearly, although not quite as broad an array of interests as Wallace displayed throughout his long life, the two had much ground of common interest over which to debate. It would seem that these letters show a fascinating snippet of this debate.

• ‘The Land Molluscan Fauna of British New Guinea’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 2 (1891), pp. 384-392 
• ‘The Range of Placostylus; a study in ancient geography’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 7 (1893), pp. 335-339. [pdf document]
• ‘On the Relation of the Fauna and Flora of Australia to Those of New Zealand’, Natural Science, vol. 3 (1893), pp. 187-191. 
• ‘An Enumeration of the Janellidae’, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, vol. 25 (1892), pp. 156-162 [pdf document]

PS: If any readers discover a digital edition of Hedley’s ‘The Land Molluscan Fauna of British New Guinea’ article that can be linked in this entry, it would be much appreciated.

A News article which promotes the Wallace Correspondence Project and encourages people to report any Wallace correspondence held in 'obscure' collections to the Project, has just been published on the Natural History Museum's website. It is entitled "Missing Wallace-Darwin letters search is on" and it can be read here:- http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2011/august/missing-wallace-darwin-letters-search-is-on102142.html

After about a year of discussing and exploring a variety of different options, ARW's grandsons John and Dick, and myself, George Beccaloni, finally decided how to manage the copyright of ARW's unpublished works (such as his letters and notebooks). This is important to the Wallace Correspondence Project and to all others who would like to publish transcripts, images etc of these manuscripts. On Sunday July 31st 2011 I met up with John and Dick in Lymington and the three of us signed a legal contract in which we agreed the following:-

1) George becomes one of three holders of ARW's copyright (i.e. a co-executor of ARW's Literary Estate), the other two being John and Dick.

2) John, Richard and George agree to allow the non-commercial publication of ARW's unpublished works by others under the terms and conditions of Creative Commons licence "Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share-Alike 2.0 England and Wales" i.e. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/legalcode). Scholars who are interested in ARW's life and work will be able to freely publish ARW's unpublished writings, on condition that the Literary Estate retains any legal rights associated with the works.

3) Proposals to commercially publish ARW's unpublished works will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and must be agreed in writing by a minimum of two of the co-executors of the Literary Estate.

George is the official point of contact for all enquiries relating to ARW's Literary Estate, and he can be contacted by CLICKING HERE.

A more detailed account of the above can be found HERE.

The current co-executors of ARW's Literary Estate, from left to right: John Wallace, George Beccaloni, and Dick Wallace. Copyright Janet Beccaloni.

Job Title:  Wallace Correspondence Project Archivist
Salary: From £ 27,339 per annum plus benefits
Contract: 16 month fixed term appointment (with possibility of extension of a further twelve months)
Closing date: Wednesday 13^th July 2011
Interview date: Thursday 25^st July 2011

The Natural History Museum is one of the world’s leading museums, internationally recognised for its dual role as a centre of excellence in scientific research and as a leading exponent in the presentation of natural history to the general public through exhibitions, public programmes and the web.

We are seeking to recruit a team member to the Wallace Correspondence Project to obtain copies of letters sent to or written by Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of natural selection, held in worldwide institutions and private collections. You will be responsible for negotiating with these institutions for the purpose of including information and scans of these documents in the online project database. Excellent communication skills together with experience of cataloguing archival documents are essential.

The successful candidate will ideally have a degree (or equivalent) in Biology or History and a demonstrable interest in the history of science.

For a full job description and to apply online please visit the Natural History Museum website at www.nhm.ac.uk/jobs