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Record number: WCP4244

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Sent by:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Sent to:
Biology Students at the University of Colorado
On:
12 January 1912

Sent by Alfred Russel Wallace, Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset to Biology Students at the University of Colorado, [Boulder, Colorado] on 12 January 1912.

Record created:
20 April 2012 by Catchpole, Caroline

Summary

No summary available at this time.

Record notes

Record contains:

  • letter (1)
  • publication (1)

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LETTER (WCP4244.4314)

A typical letter handwritten by author in English and signed by author.

Held by:
American Museum of Natural History
Finding number:
MSS.W3551
Copyright owner:
Copyright of the A. R. Wallace Literary Estate

Physical description

Transcription information

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Transcript

[[1]]

Jan[uar]y 12th, 1912

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Dorset.

To the Biology Students in the University of Colorado[,] U.S.A.1

My dear Young Friends

Thank you much for your very kind greetings. I am much pleased that so many of you are readers of my books. The wonders of nature have been the delight and solace of my life. From the day when I first saw a Bee-orchis2 (Ophrys apifera) in ignorant astonishment, to [[2]] my first view of the grand forests of the Amazon; thence to the Malay Archipelago, where every fresh island with its marvellous novelties and beauties was an additional delight -- nature has afforded one an ever increasing rapture, and the attempt to solve some of her myriad [word illeg. crossed-out] problems an ever-growing sense of mystery and awe.

And now, in my wild garden and greenhouse, the endless diversities of plant life renew my enjoyments; and the ever-changing pageant [[3]] of the seasons impress one more than ever [than] in my earlier days.

I sincerely wish you all some of the delight in the mere contemplation of nature’s mysteries and beauties which I have enjoyed, and still enjoy.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

ENDNOTES

1. ARW is writing to the students attending classes held by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell (1866 - 1948). American zoologist.

2. Synonymous with the term bee-orchid, an herbaceous perennial plant of the family Orchidaceae.