The 200th anniversary of Wallace's birth is ONLY 4 years away!

The 200th anniversary of Alfred Russel Wallace's birth is now only about 4 years away (8th January 2023) and whilst this may seem a long time to most people, those planning feature films, major exhibitions, postage stamps, international conferences, books etc often need 5 or more years of preparation time - especially for projects where major funding needs to be raised first. We have already heard about two projects that are in the 'pipeline', so some people are already starting to plan events for the anniversary year.

The Wallace Memorial Fund played a key role in the worldwide events which marked the 2013 anniversary of Wallace's death, and we plan to be at the centre of the 2023 celebrations. Not only do we have the world's most visited Wallace-related website, but we own the copyright of Wallace's letters, notebooks and other unpublished works, and the reproduction rights to most of the very best photographs of Wallace, his artwork etc. For the 2013 anniversary we sent more than 220 Wallace-related images to 32 organisations or individuals around the world for use in articles, books and exhibitions (most were supplied free of charge) and we also initiated and led the campaign to raise funds for the magnificent bronze statue of Wallace now in London's Natural History Museum. For the 2023 anniversary we want to do something BIG, and we are currently thinking what this might be. Watch this space!

In 2013 the Wallace Fund's Chairman, Dr George Beccaloni, played a major role in coordinating the worldwide celebration, which was named "Wallace100". George helped to design the Wallace100 logo, he listed and advertised events, answered innumerable enquiries about Wallace, wrote articles and blog posts, gave public talks etc. For the 2023 anniversary the Wallace Fund has already designed a Wallace200 logo (see above) - and we urge everyone holding Wallace-related events that year to use it on their websites, publications etc in order to show that they are part of the united worldwide Wallace celebrations.

The Wallace200 logo features a beautiful watercolour painting of Wallace's Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) done by Wallace himself in 1855 in Sarawak. Wallace discovered that this species can glide through the air using the greatly expanded membranes between its toes and he thought it was an excellent example of an evolutionary adaptation. Sadly not many of his fellow naturalists believed his story until it was confirmed many years later... The Wallace200 logo has no copyright attached to it - it is in the public domain - so you do not have to ask permission to use it. When the time comes to advertise your event, please let us know the details (email blaberus1@ntlworld.com) and we will add them to the Wallace2023 events listing.

Best of luck planning your events for the BIG celebration in 2023. It is a really great opportunity for science education and public engagement!

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith