page_title: Alfred Russel Wallace
section_title: Legacy and historical perception
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Russel Wallace / Legacy and historical perception
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue in bronze of naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) by Anthony Smith. He is looking up at a bronze model of a Wallace's golden birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera croesus). The statue was commissioned by the Wallace Memorial Fund and was given to the London Natural History Museum, where it was unveiled by Sir David Attenborough on November 7th 2013 - the 100th anniversary of Wallace's death.
context_page_description: Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species.
  Like Darwin, Wallace did extensive fieldwork; first in the Amazon River basin, and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the faunal divide now termed the Wallace Line, which separates the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts: a western portion in which the animals are largely of Asian origin, and an eastern portion where the fauna reflect Australasia.
  He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography". Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made many other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection.
context_section_description: As a result of his writing, at the time of his death Wallace had been for many years a well-known figure both as a scientist and as a social activist. He was often sought out by journalists and others for his views on a variety of topics. He received honorary doctorates and a number of professional honours, such the Royal Society's Royal Medal and Darwin Medal in 1868 and 1890, respectively, and the Order of Merit in 1908. Above all, his role as the co-discoverer of natural selection and his work on zoogeography marked him out as an exceptional figure.
  He was undoubtedly one of the greatest natural history explorers of the 19th century. Despite this, his fame faded quickly after his death. For a long time, he was treated as a relatively obscure figure in the history of science. A number of reasons have been suggested for this lack of attention, including his modesty, his willingness to champion unpopular causes without regard for his own reputation, and the discomfort of much of the scientific community with some of his unconventional ideas.
  Recently, he has become a less obscure figure with the publication of several book-length biographies on him, as well as anthologies of his writings. In 2007 a literary critic for New Yorker magazine observed that five such biographies and two such anthologies had been published since 2000. There has also been a web page created that is dedicated to Wallace scholarship.
  In a 2010 book, the environmentalist Tim Flannery claimed that Wallace was 'the first modern scientist to comprehend how essential cooperation is to our survival,' and suggested that Wallace's understanding of natural selection and his later work on the atmosphere be seen as a forerunner to modern ecological thinking.
  The Natural History Museum, London, co-ordinated commemorative events for the Wallace centenary worldwide in the 'Wallace100' project in 2013. On 24 January, his portrait was unveiled in the Main Hall of the museum by Bill Bailey, a fervent admirer. On the BBC Two programme "Bill Bailey's Jungle Hero", first broadcast on 21 April 2013, Bailey revealed how Wallace cracked evolution by revisiting places where Wallace discovered exotic species. Episode one featured orangutans and flying frogs in Bailey's journey through Borneo. Episode two featured birds of paradise. On 7 November 2013, the 100th anniversary of Wallace's death, Sir David Attenborough unveiled a statue of Wallace at the museum. The statue was donated by the A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund, and was sculpted by Anthony Smith. It depicts Wallace as a young man, collecting in the jungle. November 2013 also marked the debut of The Animated Life of A. R. Wallace, a paper-puppet animation film dedicated to Wallace's centennial.
caption: Anthony Smith's statue of Wallace, looking up at a bronze model of a Wallace's golden birdwing butterfly. Natural History Museum, London, unveiled 7 November 2013
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