Introduction

At the Museum

The Natural History Museum is well placed to provide a unique insight into who Alfred Russel Wallace was. In January 2002 the Museum purchased a personal collection of papers and the library of Wallace from the Wallace family. The collection of over 5,000 items includes ‘personal and related family papers, correspondence, accounts of expenditure, publishers’ proofs, reprints, photographs, certificates, pamphlets, press cuttings, lecture notes and obituaries’ (Lucas 2003). The Wallace Collection complements other collections held at the Museum. These include Wallace’s specimens and field notebooks as well as papers and specimens of naturalists such as Darwin and Henry Walter Bates.

The Wallace Collection online

The project to digitise part of the Wallace Collection was funded by the Mellon Foundation. Its objective was to provide an electronic resource indicative of the content found in the Wallace Collection. Approximately 150 items have been selected for imaging and are presented here. Each image has interpretative text and transcriptions where necessary. The items chosen offer views on Wallace as a naturalist, a collector, a lecturer, a family man, a spiritualist, an architect and a great thinker. The items also reveal Wallace’s role as the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Browse the online collection

AS Level Perspectives on Science

In addition, the Wallace Collection supports the newly developed Edexcel AS Level Perspectives on Science. The syllabus is built around four case studies of which Darwin and Wallace are one and the Wallace Collection gives students access to a significant collection of primary resource material.

The Wallace Collection catalogue

The Wallace Papers, consisting of correspondence, papers and photographs, have been arranged and catalogued onto Calm 2000, the Archives Management System, under the reference code ‘WP’. The catalogue can be searched by name, place, subject or date.

The Wallace Papers can be consulted by visiting the General and Zoology Library of the Natural History Museum. View details of opening hours and how to book an appointment.