Darwin’s name is eternally linked to one of the most momentous scientific breakthroughs of all time, while his co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace, who first coined the phrase “origin of species”, has been largely forgotten.
Now a newly revealed archive of Wallace’s letters provides a remarkable insight into how he came to be the underdog of evolutionary theory.
Contrary to claims that Wallace was cheated out of his rightful place in history, a picture emerges of a man with an acute dread of pomp and circumstance, who regarded the honours bestowed on him during his lifetime as something of a nuisance.
In a letter to his editor, James Marchant, Wallace complains that he is “rather tired of medals”, after being awarded almost every prize at the Royal Society’s disposal. He also mentions that he was invited to sit for the artist John Collier, whose masterpiece immortalised Charles Darwin’s image – but immediately turned him down.
“I think it possible I may have declined rather abruptly and perhaps Collier may have felt hurt,” Wallace wrote.
The letters are part of a private collection that also includes hand-written notes for a book, entitled Darwin and Wallace, that the scientist and his editor were working on at the time of Wallace’s death in 1913. The draft outline for the book, which was never written, is going to auction next week.
Dr George Beccaloni, director of the Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project, describes the 24 letters as “fascinating”. “They give a from-the-horse’s mouth account of Wallace’s views,” he said. “They show Wallace wasn’t much of a self-publicist. He missed some very good publicity coups.”
By contrast, Wallace’s editor, Marchant, comes across as a savvy operator, whose plans to secure Wallace’s legacy were continually scuppered by the scientist’s indifference to fame and glory.
The collection also includes a letter dated shortly before Wallace’s death from his son, William, to Marchant, responding to a suggestion that his father should be buried at Westminster Abbey. “Neither my mother nor my father himself would desire it,” William Wallace writes. “We all of us are averse from publicity and unnecessary ceremony.”
The outline for the manuscript sketches out how Wallace and Darwin managed to arrive at the same discovery, and despite describing them as “co-discoverers”, Wallace consistently refers to “Darwinism”, a term he is thought to have come up with.
Wallace had initially written to Darwin from the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera to share his revolutionary idea. Darwin, who had independently been developing his own theory of evolution for more than a decade, was prompted into action and arranged for both versions to be read to members of the Linnean Society in 1858.
During recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Wallace, with the Natural History Museum restoring his portrait to the museum’s main hall and several documentaries highlighting his considerable contributions and, in some cases, pointing the finger of blame at Wallace’s contemporaries for his subsequent decline into obscurity.
“People have endlessly speculated about this,” said Beccaloni. “Some have said that it was the scientific establishment ganging up on Wallace because of his spiritualistic beliefs. I think it was basically his fault.”
Beccaloni points to previously published correspondence in which Wallace mentions that he has been awarded the Order of Merit, one of the highest honours that can bestowed on a civilian. In the letter to a friend Wallace confides that he has declined to attend the ceremony at Buckingham Palace – partly because he does not want to buy a new suit for the occasion. Instead, the King had to send a dignitary to Wallace’s house in Dorset to deliver the medallion.
Sandra Knapp, head of algae, fungi and plants at the Natural History Museum, agreed that the notion Wallace was robbed of his place in history is a myth. “There’s a caricature of these scientists sitting in their room trying to scoop everyone else or being totally socially dysfunctional,” she said. “If people were to look a bit more carefully they’d ask who coined the word Darwinism? Wallace.”
Knapp has welcomed the renewed interest in Wallace’s work. “Wallace was such a character,” she said. “He’s like your grumpy friend down the street who won’t come to any of these functions where they could make friends and influence people.”
And what would Wallace make of recent efforts to restore him to his rightful place in history? “I think he’d be a bit indifferent,” said Beccaloni. “Like being given every single important medal in Britain, he was just a bit exasperated by it.”
- The Wallace manuscript notes will be auctioned by Dominic Winter Auctioneers near Cirencester on 19 July
