Last week, the Natural History Museum in London unveiled a digital archive of the letters of 19th century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin, of evolution by natural selection. The archive, introduced on the 100th anniversary of Wallace’s death, naturally focuses on his writings, but also contains some paintings and drawings. Wallace, who spent years in far-flung places collecting specimens, didn’t have the option of pulling out a camera to document his finds. He often sketched or painted his discoveries, including this lovely watercolor of a flying frog which he painted in Sarawak. It may not be Audubon-level in its artistry and detail, but it’s a useful scientific illustration which also has great personality and charm.
This is awesome, Mike. Thanks for the pointer.
I read an article about Wallace in Nat Geo Mag last year-ish and found him to be a very humble and collaborative scientist. I think any other modern scientist would be very much pissed off if he/she did not get the credit for THE biggest idea in biology. But he was very calm and unaffected by the public attention directed towards Charles Darwin.