Science
Alfred Russel Wallace
Naturalist and evolutionary theorist
Also known as A. R. Wallace
Photograph · Image credit
Who they are
Alfred Russel Wallace independently developed an explanation of species change through differential survival. His essay on varieties was presented to the Linnean Society in 1858 alongside earlier writings by Charles Darwin. The separate texts and the covering letter preserve both independent reasoning and the collaborative publication arrangement that brought the ideas to a scientific audience.
Wallace’s essay is one of the timeline’s key primary texts for explaining biological change through natural processes.
Selected contributions
- Authored the independent selection essay included in the 1858 joint communication.Source ↗
Selected works
Academic paper · 1858 · Historical society communication
On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection
The joint communication presents Darwin’s earlier extracts and Wallace’s independent essay on how natural selection can preserve variation. Lyell and Hooker’s covering letter explains how the separate contributions were brought together.
Reading scope & citation
Prior relevant primary sections and edition metadata reused; source page freshly retrieved. Not a full reread of all three texts. Reuses the input’s documented prior inspection: Relevant primary sections and edition metadata inspected. Editorial corrections are distinguished from the original covering letter's dates. No fresh full-work reread in this directory pass.
In the timeline
Biography sources & portrait credit
- On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection ↗Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Zoology 3:45–62; transcription at Darwin Online
Portrait credit
London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company (active 1855-1922). Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Photograph. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
Image source & identification ↗ · Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration) ↗
