Thursday 24 January saw the official launch of both the Museum's Wallace100 events programme for 2013 and the Wallace Correspondence Project's (WCP) digital archive of Wallace's correspondence - Wallace Letters Online (WLO). The launches took place at an evening event for people directly connected with these projects.
There were about 80 guests, including three generations of the Wallace family, Sir David Attenborough (Patron of the WCP), comedian and naturalist Bill Bailey, Wallace biographer Peter Raby, representatives of the Linnean, Royal Geographical and Royal Entomological Societies, staff from Kew Gardens, and from Museums at Thurrock, Hertford, Dudley, Swansea, Cardiff and Oxford (all of which are planning Wallace exhibitions this year).
Other notable guests included the Deputy Indonesian Ambassador to the UK, a Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project and a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin. There were also about 16 Museum staff working on the night.
Left to right: Judith Magee (Wallace100 manager), Shane Winser (Royal Geographical Society), Andy Polaszek (Wallace100 manager).
© Natural History Museum
Left to right: Richard Wallace (ARW's great-grandson), Bill Bailey, Bill Wallace (ARW's great-grandson).
© J. Beccaloni
Left to right: John Wallace (ARW's grandson), Rosamund (ARW's great-great-granddaughter), George Beccaloni (director of WLO), Jan Beccaloni (secretary of the Wallace Fund), Susan (ARW's great-granddaughter).
© Natural History Museum
The evening started off with drinks and canapés in the Museum's Images of Nature gallery, giving people who are working on Wallace-related projects a chance to network with one another (one of the main aims of the evening). WCP Archivist Caroline Catchpole demonstrated Wallace Letters Online -which had gone live to the public on the Internet for the first time earlier that day - to guests, and the Museum's Nature Live team did short video interviews of selected guests.
The Images of Nature gallery before the guests arrived.
© J. Beccaloni
Half way through the event an announcement was made and guests gathered around the screen where Caroline had been demonstrating WLO. Bill Bailey then gave a speech about the project, declaring it to be 'officially launched'.
Bill launches Wallace Letters Online.
© Natural History Museum
Towards the end of the evening guests made their way to the Museum's grand Central Hall and then part way up the central stairs - most gathered on the landing where the magnificent marble statue of Charles Darwin resides. Bill Bailey then made his way up the stairs and stood under the Museum's painting of Wallace, concealed under a golden cloth.
The picture had only two days previously been put back in this position; the one it had first occupied for a 50 year stretch after it was donated in 1923. Bill then gave a brilliant heartfelt speech, before gingerly pulling off the cloth to reveal the impressive portrait of Wallace. Afterwards he remarked "I must confess I was more nervous about that than the Royal Variety Show!"
Bill unveils the painting...
© J. Beccaloni
The painting revealed.
© Natural History Museum
Bill's speech was filmed by a crew from the BBC and it will form the grand finale to a two part documentary about Wallace that he has been working on. After Bill had finished his stuff, another Bill - Wallace's great-grandson, William Wallace - concluded the evening by giving a short speech. Bill, who had travelled all the way from Canada to attend the launch, talked about his great-grandfather and said how proud he and the Wallace family were to see their illustrious relative back at the Museum and next to Darwin, where he belongs.
Bill and Sir David have a chat whilst Darwin looks on.
© J. Beccaloni
Press coverage
A number of articles about the launch of Wallace100 and WLO have appeared on the web and in newspapers around the world. The main articles that I am aware of on the internet are as follows (several of these were reproduced on hundreds of other websites):
Biodiversity Heritage Library blog
Other languages
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Swiss newspaper in German)
Slobodna Dalmacija (newspaper in Croatian)
Volkskrant (newspaper in Dutch)
Gentside découvertes (in French)
Brazilian blog (in Portuguese)
Museum news reports about Wallace100 and WLO
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