Among the experts on Alfred Russel Wallace in the English-speaking world, Dr. George Beccaloni—a former curator of entomology at London’s Natural History Museum, and the Director of the Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project—is perhaps the most compelling advocate for a reassessment of Wallace’s place in the history of science. His knowledge and excitement are contagious, and throughout our various visits, tours, and conversations, we became increasingly certain that our curatorial engagement with the legacy of Wallace was a necessary project to see through, despite numerous obstacles. During our research, we met with George in his office, while tending to the museum’s insect collection, at his home, and in Epping Forest (one of England’s oldest), to discuss the significance of Wallace’s collections and the legacy of his work today. What follows is an edited version of these various conversations, organized thematically (instead of chronologically) for readability. We are grateful to George for his generosity, mentorship, and good humor over the years. He has helped us grasp the nuances of Wallace’s thought, the importance of natural selection, and the amazing world of entomology.

A S
Given your expertise, it would be great if you would start off by providing a bit of context about Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, and insect collecting. I would also be particularly interested in how, at the point when the theory of evolution was formulated, this transformation of knowledge changed the way that museums were ordered.  

G B
One of the predecessors of Enlightenment museum collections were the Renaissance cabinets of curiosities, which were just assemblages of interesting and strange objects. After the theory of natural selection was published and people started to accept that species had evolved from other species, displays became much more evolution-based. Wallace, as the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection, was partly responsible for this. As the founder of evolutionary biogeography, Wallace was also responsible for another popular type of display, the faunal diorama, where animals of a particular region are shown together in one scene. All the taxidermy mammals of the Andes or the Himalayas, say, are placed together against a natural background showing some of the habitat. This method of display derives from the plates in his important book, The Geographical Distribution of Animals. [Fig. 03.]

A S
Let’s step back a bit: who was Wallace and where did he come from?

G B

The basic story is very well known. Wallace was born to a downwardly mobile, middle-class couple in Usk, England (now part of Wales) in 1823. He was educated in Hertford, to the north of London, and had to leave school when he was only fourteen. Charles Darwin left school much later, when he was sixteen, and then went on to two universities. After leaving school Wallace educated himself from books and also attended working men’s clubs. He became interested in natural history whilst working with his brother as a trainee land surveyor, travelling in the countryside of southern England and Wales. His first interest was botany, as he wanted to identify the plants he saw whilst out surveying. He bought his first books on the subject and realized that there was a whole science behind the classification of plants and animals. He formed a collection of pressed plants in order to remember which species he had seen before and more accurately identify them from the books that he read. He then got a job for a year as a teacher in Leicester. That’s when he met Henry Walter Bates, a keen beetle collector who got Wallace passionate about insects. Wallace then returned to Wales and started collecting beetles, moths, and butterflies.