![]() ![]() World Museum was originally called the Derby Museum in honour of the 13 th Earl of Derby whose natural history collection founded the Liverpool public museums. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE MEUSEUMS FULLWallace’s emotional attachment to the “poor little thing” (page 68) provides a dramatic counterpoint to his hard-headed hunting of adults.Īmong the orangutans collected by Wallace in Sarawak, he specifically mentions: the first full grown specimen he obtained (a female) (page 64) a “giant” male with a perfectly preserved skeleton (page 76) and the “only other male specimen of Simia morio” (page 87) as being in the “Derby Museum”. Wallace also recalls fostering a female baby orangutan orphaned after her mother was shot out of the canopy. However, Wallace and his contemporaries thought these animals comprised multiple species, including “ Simia satyrus” and “ Simia morio”.Ĭhapter four recounts Wallace’s collection of around twenty orangutans, about ten of which he shot himself. The orangutans of Borneo are now generally considered to be a single species ( Pongo pygmaeus), with a single subspecies found in Sarawak. In all these objects I succeeded beyond my expectations, …” ![]() Wallace wrote: “… one of my chief objects in coming to stay at Simunjon was to see the Orang-utan (or great man-like ape of Borneo) in his native haunts, to study his habitats, and obtain good specimens of the different varieties and species of both sexes, and of the adult and young animals. Orangutans feature prominently in the book’s title, and chapter four is largely devoted to Wallace’s adventures with orangutans in Sarawak, Borneo. During 8 years Wallace travelled over 14,000 miles and collected 125,000 specimens. ![]() The Malay Archipelago is a vivid, first-person account of Wallace’s travels, studies and natural history collecting in Southeast Asia. Title page of the first edition of The Malay Archipelago published in 1869, 150 years ago. A narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature.Īlthough best known as the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection alongside Charles Darwin, The Malay Archipelago firmly established Wallace as one of the greatest natural history explorers. 150 years ago Alfred Russel Wallace wrote about “the land of the orang-utan” and sent specimens to LiverpoolĢ019 is the 150 th anniversary of the first publication of Alfred Russel Wallace’s The Malay Archipelago: The land of the orang-utan, and the bird of paradise. ![]()
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