Alfred Russel Wallace's Palms of the Amazon - Exploration and Illustration

Explore the fascinating world of Alfred Russel Wallace's work on Amazonian palms in this illuminating lecture. Delve into Wallace's early explorations of the Brazilian Amazon in the 1840s, where he developed a deep understanding of tropical flora, particularly palms. Learn about the dramatic loss of his collections in a shipwreck and how he used his surviving sketches to write a groundbreaking book on Amazon palm trees from memory. Examine Wallace's beautiful pencil portraits of palms, many new to science, and compare them to the published lithographs by Walter Hood Fitch. Discover how Wallace's accessible writing style and format pioneered the concept of field guides. Gain insights into the historical context of Wallace's work, including his collaboration with Charles Darwin on the theory of evolution by natural selection. Understand the significance of Wallace's contributions to botany and tropical ecology, despite initial criticism from contemporary botanists.