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Alfred Russel Wallace

  • Shipwrecked Wallace

    Thu, 2013-03-07 10:33 -- John Hawks

    Jerry Coyne has a guest post today by Andrew Berry, who recounts an episode in the early life of Alfred Russel Wallace: "The most poignant episode in all of the history of science".

    “When the danger appeared past I began to feel the greatness of my loss. With what pleasure had I looked upon every rare and curious insect I had added to my collection! How many times, when almost overcome by the ague, had I crawled into the forest and been rewarded by some unknown and beautiful species! How many places, which no European foot but my own had trodden, would have been recalled to my memory by the rare birds and insects they had furnished to my collection! How many weary days and weeks had I passed, upheld only by the fond hope of bringing home many new and beautiful forms from these wild regions … which would prove that I had not wasted the advantage I had enjoyed, and would give me occupation and amusement for many years to come! And now … I had not one specimen to illustrate the unknown lands I had trod, or to call back the recollection of the wild scenes I had beheld! But such regrets were vain … and I tried to occupy myself with the state of things which actually existed.”

    It's a tremendous story in the history of science, illustrates the difficulties faced by nineteenth-century naturalists as they explored the tropics for new biological knowledge, and reminds us how lucky we are to be able to back up our data as we work.

    Tags: 
    Alfred Russel Wallace
    history of biology

  • "Where did it go wrong for Wallace's reputation?"

    Sat, 2013-03-02 16:28 -- John Hawks

    The BBC has an article by Kevin Leonard, pondering "Why does Charles Darwin eclipse Alfred Russel Wallace?" They both thought of the idea of natural selection, and by Wallace's death he was recognized as one of the most famous scientists in the world. So how to explain this?

    But while today Darwin is a household name synonymous with the theory, Wallace struggles to gain anywhere near the recognition of his friend.

    This is illustrated by an appeal this year to raise funds for a life-sized bronze statue to honour Wallace - it only reached half of its £50,000 target.

    Wallace expert Dr George Beccaloni, who is a curator at the Natural History Museum where the statue would stand, said: "We have enough money to pay for a torso and arms at the moment.

    How sad! Of course, one might say the torso and arms of such a giant would be quite enough. And there were the seances...

    There's something sociologically very interesting about this. I wonder if it's a misperception, though. I mean, how many really famous scientists -- of the kind that get memorial statues a hundred years after their deaths -- are there in each field of science?

    Tags: 
    Alfred Russel Wallace
    history of biology

  • Quote: Wallace on the distribution of beauty

    Thu, 2013-01-03 19:26 -- John Hawks

    In response to Darwin's claim that the British aristocracy has been made more beautiful "from pick of women", Alfred Russel Wallace replied (in a letter to Darwin written on 29 May 1864):

    I very much doubt the often repeated assertion that our aristocracy are more beautiful than the middle classes. I allow that they present specimens of the highest kind of beauty, but I doubt the average.

    I have noticed in country places a greater average amount of good looks among the middle classes, & besides we unavoidably combine in our idea of beauty, intellectual expression & refinement of manners, which often make the less appear the more beautiful. Mere physical beauty,—that is, a healthy & regular development of the body & features approaching to the mean or type of European man,—I believe is quite as frequent in one class of society as the other & much more frequent in rural districts than in cities.

    In addition to being an admirably Republican sentiment, Wallace's letter is an early statement of the idea that the average physical form is perceived as the most beautiful.

    Tags: 
    quotes
    Alfred Russel Wallace
    Darwin
    aesthetics
    typology

  • Cabinet of curiosities

    Wed, 2009-11-25 01:34 -- John Hawks

    Six hundred dollars was more money twenty years ago, but it was still pretty cheap for a beautiful rosewood specimen cabinet, I'd have thought. It was full of somebody's nineteenth-century insect collection. Wait a minute -- how many nineteenth-century insect collections with 1700 specimens were there, anyway? That's a lot of work collecting. Maybe this belonged to somebody notable?

    What happened with the cabinet after it left [Alfred Russel] Wallace’s possession is mostly a mystery. Before turning up in Virginia, the cabinet was bought in 1964 by an antiques dealer from an unclaimed baggage sale in Philadelphia. He suspected that the cabinet belonged to Wallace, but never took the pains to prove it. Mr. Heggestad made some inquiries after he bought the cabinet and then let the matter drop. He kept the cabinet in his dining room until a friend advised him in 2007 that it should be in a museum. That inspired him to a flurry of research in which he compared the handwriting on the specimen labels with those in the British museum and studied the source of the specimens, putting beyond doubt that the collection was Wallace’s.

    And now it's on display at the American Museum of Natural History.

    Tags: 
    history of science
    Alfred Russel Wallace
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