Wallace100 - celebrating Alfred Russel Wallace's life and legacy

Intrepid explorer, brilliant naturalist and remarkable intellectual, Alfred Russel Wallace co-discovered the process of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin.

Wallace100 is a celebration of his life and scientific legacy in 2013, the centenary of his death.

Explore Wallace’s life and work with our interactive timeline

The Wallace Collection at the Natural History Museum contains thousands of letters, notebooks and documents, as well as 28 drawers of specimens collected by Wallace on epic trips to the Malay Archipelago and South America.

Find out about the collection

Collection highlights

Organised according to different aspects of Wallace's life and interests, such as collecting, evolution, family and naturalist, the online collection also reveals the relationship between Wallace and Darwin.

Explore Wallace Collection highlights

Father of biogeography

Through his letters to family, friends and fellow scientists Wallace shared his love of the natural world and his ideas on how geography influences the distribution of species.

Discover Wallace's ideas on animal distribution

Socialist and spiritualist

A committed socialist, Wallace supported nationalisation of land and improved working conditions. Perhaps unexpectedly, he also had a keen interest in spiritualism, which was a fashionable pursuit at the time.

Wallace's socialist agenda

Spiritualism with the Victorians

Museum curator George Beccaloni discusses Wallace's work with Melvyn Bragg and other guests on In Our Time.

Listen on BBC iPlayer

George Beccaloni and a team of fellow Wallace enthusiasts keep you in the loop with what's happening for Wallace100.

Read the latest blog posts below.

Explore over 3,800 letters written and received by Wallace, including iconic correspondence with Charles Darwin and other famous scientists, the first time these have all been made available in one place.

Together, they tell the story of Wallace’s life – from his adventures, discoveries and family life, to his interests and opinions – and reveal the kind of man he was.

Browse a selection of Wallace's letters and documents that give a deep insight into his thoughts about evolution and how both he and Darwin realised that natural selection was the power behind it.

Letter and document highlights

Breakthrough papers

Wallace's first public mention of evolution was in his Sarawak law paper, published in 1855. 

Read extracts from this and 'On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties...', the joint paper he and Darwin presented to the Linnean Society in 1858:

• Sarawak law paper on evolution
• Wallace's own annotated copy of the 1858 joint paper

Join the world in celebrating the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace.

The Museum and partner institutions around the world are organising a number of special events and activities for the centenary, including public exhibitions, talks, performance art and conferences. 

Wallace100 event diary