| Description: |
Note in A. R. Wallace's hand re the loss of the original Ms of his paper sent to Darwin; written on a brown envelope approx 24 cm x 14 cm, with text: "The first 8 letters I received from Darwin - (while in the Malay Archipelago) | N B The Mss of my paper sent to Darwin and printed in the Journal of the Linnean Society, was not returned to me, and seems to be lost. The proofs with the Mss. were Perhaps sent to Sir Charles Lyell, or to the Secretary of the Linn. Soc. or may some day be found. It was written on thin foreign note paper. | Alfred R. Wallace". The envelope was empty when listed. Place: Ternate Moluccas Netherlands Indies Notes: The letters were probably those sent to Cockerell for exhibition during the Darwin Centenary 1909: see letter from Cockerell 23 Mar 1909 (WP11/4). Dated on this basis and the possibility that the letters were first set aside for use when writing his autobiography, which he began in 1902: see letter to his son William 16 Mar 1902 (WP1/1/44). See also proof of Ternate paper, WP7/9. |
