Historical Figures Codexery

Alfred Russel Wallace

English naturalist who co-discovered evolution by natural selection.

Alfred Russel Wallace was an English naturalist who independently conceived a theory of evolution by natural selection.[1][2] He is considered the father of biogeography for his work on the geographical distribution of animal species.[3][4]

Quick Facts

Born
8 January 1823
Died
7 November 1913
Place of death
Broadstone, Dorset, England
Known for
  • Co-discovery of natural selection
  • Pioneering work on biogeography
  • Wallace Line
  • Wallace effect
Spouse
Annie Mitten (m. 1866)
Children
3
Field
  • Exploration
  • evolutionary biology
  • zoology
  • biogeography
  • social reform

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

His father had trained in law but never practiced, and the family's finances declined due to bad investments.[5][6] Wallace left Hertford Grammar School at age fourteen in 1837, the normal leaving age for pupils not going to university.[7][1] He worked as an apprentice surveyor for his brother William from 1837 until 1843.[8][1] In 1844 Wallace began teaching at the Collegiate School in Leicester, where he met the entomologist Henry Walter Bates.[9][10][1]

Wallace returned to Britain in 1862, married Annie Mitten in 1866, and had three children.[11][12][13] Thomas Vere Wallace and Mary Anne Greenell had nine children, of whom Alfred Russel Wallace was the eighth.[14][6] During his travels in the Malay Archipelago from 1854 to 1862, Wallace collected a total of 125,660 specimens, including more than 83,000 beetles, and recognized the faunal divide now called the Wallace Line.[3][15][16][17] In 1858, Wallace sent Darwin an essay describing his theory; extracts from Darwin's manuscripts and Wallace's essay were read before the Linnean Society on 1 July 1858 and published that year.[2][18][1]

What the cited sources add

The van Wyhe biographical sketch notes that Wallace finished school at the normal age, contrary to claims he was forced to leave early due to financial difficulties.[1] Smith's capsule biography states that Wallace's father was swindled out of his remaining property around 1835, causing the family's financial hardship.[6] The same source reports that Wallace's map of the Rio Negro region proved accurate enough to become the standard for many years.[6] Smith's introduction to Wallace's evolution describes him as fundamentally a geographer who happened to be interested in evolution.[4]

The introduction also notes that Wallace's field endeavors were not subsidized by colonial regimes, except for a small grant from the Royal Geographical Society for passage.[4] Smith's note on "Is Mars Habitable?" states that the book is recognized as one of the first works in the field of exobiology.[19]

References

  1. van Wyhe, "Alfred Russel Wallace. A biographical sketch", Wallace Online. facts only, no text reused. wallace-online.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: van Wyhe 2013; Wallace, "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type", The Alfred Russel Wallace Page hosted by Western Kentucky University; Darwin Wallace 1858 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smith, "Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution of an Evolutionist Introduction", The Alfred Russel Wallace Page (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Smith, "Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution of an Evolutionist Introduction", The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. facts only, no text reused. people.wku.edu
  5. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smith, "Alfred Russel Wallace: Capsule Biography", The Alfred Russel Wallace Page (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Smith, "Alfred Russel Wallace: Capsule Biography", The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. facts only, no text reused. people.wku.edu
  7. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: van Wyhe, "Alfred Russel Wallace. A biographical sketch", Wallace Online; Wilson 2000, p. 1 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Raby 2002, p. 77–78; Slotten 2004, p. 11–14; van Wyhe, "Alfred Russel Wallace. A biographical sketch", Wallace Online (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: van Wyhe, "Alfred Russel Wallace. A biographical sketch", Wallace Online; Shermer 2002, p. 53; Slotten 2004, p. 11–14 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: This was not the library now at Leicester Guildhall, known as the town library, more likely that at the Mechanics' Institute. The Old Town Hall Library of Leice; van Wyhe, "Alfred Russel Wallace. A biographical sketch", Wallace Online; Wallace 1905a, p. [http://wallace-online.org/content/frameset?pageseq=275&itemID=S729.1&viewtype=side 232–235], [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=A237.1&pageseq=289 256] (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Shermer 2002, p. 53 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: van Wyhe 2013; Shermer 2002, p. 53 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Slotten 2004, p. 11–14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wilson 2000, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Chronology of Wallace's travels in the Malay Archipelago", The Alfred Russel Wallace Website, 4 April 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  16. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wallace 1869, p. "Now we Englishmen do not like despotism— we hate the name and the thing, and we would rather see people ignorant, lazy, and vicious, than use any but moral force to make them wise, industrious, and good...."; van Wyhe, "Wallace's Help: The Many People Who Aided A. R. Wallace in the Malay Archipelago", Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 31 October 2022, p. 41–68; Shermer 2002, p. 53 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  17. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: van Wyhe 2013; "S31. Wallace, A. R. 1857. [Letter dated 21 August 1856, Lombock]. Zoologist 15 (171–172): 5414–5416.", Wallace Online (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  18. Wikipedia, "Alfred Russel Wallace" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Browne 2002, p. 35–42 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  19. Smith, "Is Mars Habitable?, by Alfred Russel Wallace", The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. facts only, no text reused. people.wku.edu

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Alfred Russel Wallace (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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