Alfred Russel Wallace

8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913

Alfred Russel Wallace was a British naturalist, explorer, and biologist who independently conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection, prompting Charles Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species. His fieldwork in the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago made him a founder of biogeography, and the faunal boundary known as the Wallace Line bears his name.

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Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Alfred Russel Wallace.

Life events

Born in Llanbadoc, Wales
8 January 1823

Alfred Russel Wallace was born near Usk in Monmouthshire, the eighth of nine children in a family of modest means.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Worked as a land surveyor with his brother William
c. 1837

Wallace left school at 14 and spent years surveying in the English and Welsh countryside, developing his interest in natural history.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Expedition to the Amazon basin
1848 – 1852

Wallace traveled to Brazil with Henry Walter Bates to collect specimens and investigate the origin of species along the Amazon and Rio Negro.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Lost his collections in a ship fire at sea
August 1852

On the voyage home from Brazil, the brig Helen caught fire and sank, destroying nearly all of Wallace's specimens and notes.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Expedition through the Malay Archipelago
1854 – 1862

Wallace spent eight years collecting over 125,000 specimens in the Malay Archipelago, during which he identified the faunal boundary later called the Wallace Line.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Joint Darwin-Wallace paper on natural selection read at the Linnean Society
1 July 1858

Wallace's Ternate essay on natural selection was presented alongside extracts from Darwin's work at the Linnean Society of London.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married Annie Mitten
1866

Wallace married Annie Mitten, daughter of botanist William Mitten; the couple had three children.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published The Malay Archipelago
1869

Wallace's account of his travels became one of the most celebrated books of scientific exploration of the 19th century.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Awarded the Order of Merit
1908

Wallace received the Order of Merit, one of the highest honors bestowed by the British Crown.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died at Broadstone, Dorset
7 November 1913

Alfred Russel Wallace died at his home, Old Orchard, at the age of 90.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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