Wallace did not come from a privileged background and was largely self-taught. A materialist until his 40s, he gradually developed a belief in naturalistic, evolutionary spiritualism. He strongly believed in the rights of the ordinary person, was a socialist, a proponent of land nationalisation, and an anti-vaccinationist (for rational reasons - also see THIS study). He was anti-slavery, anti-eugenics, anti-vivisection, anti-militarism, anti-Imperialism, a conservationist and an advocate of woman's rights. Wallace was a man with an extraordinary breadth of interests who was actively engaged with many of the big questions and important issues of his day. Beyond this, Wallace is regarded as the pre-eminent collector and field biologist of tropical regions during the 19th century, and his book The Malay Archipelago (which was Joseph Conrad’s favourite bedside reading) is one of the most celebrated travel writings of that century and has never been out of print. His pioneering work on what would become evolutionary biogeography (the science that seeks to explain the geographical distribution of organisms) led to him becoming recognised as that subject’s ‘father’. Wallace made enduring scholarly contributions to subjects as diverse as glaciology, land reform, anthropology, ethnography, epidemiology, and astrobiology. Together Wallace and Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, and their prolific subsequent work laid the foundations of modern evolutionary biology - and much more besides. His seminal contributions to biology rival those of his friend and colleague Charles Darwin, though he is far less well known. This site is dedicated to the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913), was one of the greatest scientists of all time. Though in one sense rivals.' Darwin to Wallace, 1870 'Great is the power of steady misrepresentation but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.' Charles Darwin, Origin of Species That we have never felt any jealousy towards each other, '.very few things in my life have been more satisfactory to me. 'It is curious how we hit on the same ideas.' Charles Darwin to Wallace, 1867 '.there is no more admirable character in the history of science.' Sir David Attenborough, 2013

Alfred russel wallace family