Wallace Online is a research project dedicated to the life and work of the explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). Wallace studied the natural history of the Malay Archipelago (Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) from 1854-1862. In 1858 he famously conceived of the theory of evolution by natural selection, independently of Charles Darwin. Writings by both men, outlining the theory, were published in the same year.

Similarly to Darwin Online, the Wallace Online project will produce a free scholarly website which will offer Wallace’s complete publications, and also many of his unpublished private papers. The project is in collaboration with Charles S. Smith’s The Alfred Russel Wallace Page and the Natural History Museum (London).

In addition, the project is creating a union catalogue of Wallace’s unpublished private papers in various archives around the world, a complete day-by-day itinerary of Wallace’s movements in South East Asia, and other original research on science and exploration in Wallace’s time in South East Asia.

The donation supports a full time Senior Research Fellow, Dr Kees Rookmaaker, who also worked for the Darwin Online project at the University of Cambridge (2005-9) and whose experience and expertise are an invaluable asset.

The Wallace Online website was launched in 2012 and in time for the centenary of Wallace’s death in 2013.

PI: John van Wyhe