Wallace Online launches

Alfred Russel Wallace, 1862Alfred Russel Wallace, 1862

Wallace Online — the first complete edition of the writings of the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), who is credited along with Charles Darwin for formulating evolution by natural selection — launched on September 27, 2012. Based at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore, the project is headed by the historian of science John van Wyhe, who is also responsible for Darwin Online, a similar project that launched in 2006 and is now the largest and most widely consulted edition of Darwin's writings.

"What this should hopefully do is result in a major upgrade in the quality of writing about Wallace," van Wyhe told the BBC (September 27, 2012). "Next year is the centenary of his death. Just like 2009 was the big Darwin year, 2013 will be the big Wallace year. And I hope now that people have access to all of his literature, it will make a big difference to what they say and write about him." The site includes publications by Wallace, a selection of documents written by him, a compilation of the scientific descriptions of his specimens, and a selection of works that influenced him.