“For me, there is no more admirable character in the history of science”
Sir David Attenborough
Come and explore archives near and far to discover the man considered to be the father of the evolution of the species – Alfred Russel Wallace.
The first visit is to the Natural History Museum, where a picture of Wallace is painted of a man of many talents – explorer, collector, naturalist, geographer, anthropologist and political commentator. Most famously, he had the revolutionary idea of evolution by natural selection entirely independently of Charles Darwin. Wallace Letters Online is a searchable digital archive (with transcripts) of his correspondence and manuscripts.
An interesting discovery within these letters, was correspondence between Wallace and Lewis Weston Dillwyn (eminent botanist and Swansea industrialist), and his son Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn. There are only 3 letters between 1848 and 1878, but the content (discussing the Royal Institute of South Wales, publications and coleopteran) suggests that communication was more regular during that time.
Within the Dillwyn collection in the Richard Burton Archives more of Wallace’s connections to Swansea are revealed!
The 1853 diary of Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, who was a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Geological Society and had lectured on ornithology and natural history at the Royal Institution of South Wales, notes a visit by ‘Mr Wallace’
August 15. Monday – Fine – overcast and threatening in the evening – Committee of works at 10 a.m. Harbour meeting at 11 – home in the afternoon to meet Mr Strickland and Mr Wallace & shew them round my Labuan collections1 – they dined with us afterwards with a party
Diary of Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn (Ref. LAC/26/D/16)
The original diaries of Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn are held here in the Richard Burton Archives, and transcriptions made by Richard Morris are available online.
Continuing our search in the Richard Burton Archives, the Elaine Morgan collection shows how Wallace touched the lives not only of his contemporaries but also future generations.
In the script for “The Forgotten Voyage: The story of Alfred Russel Wallace” broadcast in 1982, Morgan, a Welsh writer for television and the author of several books on evolutionary anthropology, tells the story of ‘his voyage to the Far East in 1854 where he made discoveries complementary to those of Darwin’.
Archives hold fascinating gems and insights. Letters are plentiful within these collections, and connect, people, places and facts. Catalogues and portals, like the Archives Hub, are important in helping us to find these connections, whilst digitised material and transcriptions projects help us to explore them further. What unexpected connections have you found in the archives? We’d love to know more!
1. For those keen to explore the Isle of Labuan and Dillwyn’s findings, his Labuan lecture can be accessed online, together with information about Hugh Edwin Strickland’s expertise and life’s work.