Revision of Bronze statue of Wallace from Wed, 2013-06-26 21:56

A Bronze Statue of Wallace: A lasting legacy of 2013


On the 15th July 2012 the Wallace Memorial Fund, with the enthusiastic support of our Patron Bill Bailey and our Treasurer, Wallace's grandson Dick, began a campaign to raise £50,000 for a life-size bronze statue of Wallace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Wallace’s death in 2013. It will be the first three-dimensional likeness of Wallace ever made.

The Fund's campaign closed 7 months later on the 16th February 2013 and exactly £25,000 was raised (£10,000 from Alan Smith, £11,732.19 from 73 other donors and a further £3,267.81 from Alan to make the total up to £25,000). Phase 2 of the fundraising campaign began in earnest in May and is being run by Entangled Bank Events and the Ancestor's Trail Several exciting events are being organised by these non-profit making organisations and proceeds from the sale of tickets to them will go towards paying for the other half of the statue. If you can't attend one of these events but would still like to make a donation then please click the icon below

Note that the names of major donors will be inscribed on a plaque on the base of the statue for all to see and that the names of ALL donors will be printed on acid-free paper and sealed in a stainless steel 'time capsule' which will be put into the hollow body of the statue.

Where will the statue be displayed?

The statue will be donated to London's Natural History Museum, where it will be installed outside the new Darwin Centre 2 building (which contains many of Wallace's insect specimens) near the wildlife garden. The 'overflow' entrance to the Museum is in this area, so at busy times visitors will walk past the statue to enter the Museum. The statue will be publically unveiled (by Sir David Attenborough!) on the actual date of the anniversary of Wallace's death - 7th November 2013.

Who will sculpt the statue?

The statue is currently being made by professional sculptor Anthony Smith and updates of his progress can be seen in the links below. Anthony produced a highly acclaimed statue of Charles Darwin as a student for Cambridge University in 2009 plus many other impressive works  (see
http://anthonysmithart.co.uk/). Soon a high proportion of the population of the UK will come into contact with his artwork (although they won't know it) as Anthony produced the design for the new £2.00 coin.

What will the statue look like?

The design of the statue is a secret, which will only be revealed when it is unveiled in November 2013. What we can say is that Wallace will be depicted as a young man aged 31 - 39, dressed for the tropics, with his insect collecting equipment – including his butterfly net, collecting box etc (see
http://wallacefund.info/notes-wallace-statue).

Anthony has written a series of blog posts about the making of the statue and you can see them in order here: Number 1, Number 2, Number 3, Number 4, Number 5

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