-
Alfred Russel Wallace Born
Born in Wales to Thomas Vere Wallace and Mary Anne Greenell -
Period: to
Wallace moves to Neath to teach at the Neath Mechanics' Institute
Wallace helped build the institute, which caused the founder William Jevons to invite Wallace to give lectures on scinece and engineering there Here is his first foray into academia. -
ARW meets entomologist Henry Bates
While boarding in the Headmaster's house at the Collegiate School, Wallace meets lifelong friend and colleague Henry Bates, an entomologist - influences Wallace to start collecting insects -
Darwin's Origin of Species is published
While Wallace has become almost unknown in the 21st century, at the time of its publishing the theory of evolution by natural selection was still known as the Darwin-Wallace theory. It was only around the 19th century did Wallace become removed from the theory, due to the rise of the other evolutionary theories like orthogenesis and the mutation theory -
Period: to
Wallace begins believing in Spiritualism
Wallace began believing in spiritualism in his 40s, and while many scholars today have tried to argue against recognizing his achievements because of this, at the time many scientists, even Darwin's cousin Francis Galton were proclaimed spiritualists. -
Wallace publishes The Malay Archipelago
Wallace's book about his time in the Malay Archipelago becomes on the most popular books about scientific exploration in the 19th century. Scientists like Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell as well as non-scientists like Joseph Conrad showered praise on the book. -
Period: to
Alfred Russel Wallace begins advocating for anti-vaccine policies
While today anti-vaccination is akin to anti-science, at the time this was not the case. Alfred Russel Wallace was still considered a renowned scientists, and many other important scientists of the time also advocated for non-mandatory vaccinations -
Wallace publishes his book Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of Its Applications
This book was written in defence of his and Darwin's theory of natural selection, although it does disagree with Darwin's idea of sexual selection as a method of natural selection. It is Wallace's most cited book, and separate his theory of evolution by natural selection from Darwin's by creating a "pure theory" of natural selection with no additional theories -
Wallace publishes 'Island Life' with the help of T.D.A Cockerell
Wallace's paper argued that he had found many endemic species to the British Isles; Many of his colleagues found the idea ridiculous and openly mocked him. Years later, naturalists found that Wallace had underestimated the amount of divergence in the British Isles, which even Wallace could not believe -
Alfred Russel Wallace Dies
Wallace dies at home at 90 years old. His death was widely reported in the press, with The New York Times even calling him one of the greatest scientists of the century.