The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature

1869

Special Collections DS601 W541 1869

London: Macmillan and Co.

Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) embarked upon his first overseas trip in 1848, spending four years in the Amazon. In 1854, Wallace set off again, to Malaysia with the help of a grant from the Royal Geographical Society. He spent the next eight years exploring the country. In over 70 separate expeditions, Wallace harvested over 126,000 specimens of animals, insects, and plants. Due to the enormous amount of data collected, Wallace delayed publishing his findings. It was not until 1869 that his two-volume work, The Malay Archipelago, was published. It was a great success and remained in print for over a hundred years. Significantly, Sir David Attenborough gave it credit for piquing his interest in nature as a boy.