Ahren Lester

Paper: Homing In: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Homes in Britain (1852 to 1913)

2014-11-22T12:10:00.001+00:00

I have just made my illustrated article on Alfred Russel Wallace's homes in Britain available online.

This article--published in The Linnean, vol. 30, no. 2 (October 2014)--set out to fix with a greater degree of accuracy where and when he lived at each home. The intention is that this will act as the first stage of a larger study of how his choice of residence affected his thinking--if indeed it did.

Anybody who has an interest in a similar project with another individual or with Wallace, please do contact me. I would be very interested to hear what you have done or are doing.

Here is the introduction from the article:

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) lived a life filled with innovative, inspiring and idiosyncratic intellectual endeavour. Having independently codiscovered the theory of natural selection in 1858 with Charles Darwin, he also pioneered the study of animal distribution as the ‘father of biogeography’ as well as innumerable other achievements within the scientific and socio-political realms.

Despite Wallace’s fame, some of the details of his life remain infuriatingly fuzzy. This is particularly the case regarding his homes. Local historians have occasionally studied Wallace’s homes in more detail. However, the most comprehensive research into his residences was undertaken by George Beccaloni. Now, with greater access to Wallace’s correspondence, we can piece together a more accurate picture of his residences. This paper supplements Beccaloni’s work, clarifying where Wallace lived from the period of his return from South America in 1852 to his death in 1913, focusing exclusively upon Wallace’s British residences.

Much work has already been undertaken to study the influence of Wallace's environment on his thinking prior to his work on natural selection. Yet, no such equivalent has been produced for his later life. To understand the power of place on Wallace’s later intellectual development we need to first fix where he was. It is to this important preliminary task this paper turns.

You can read this in many places including:

The same volume also includes an interesting article on Darwin and his homes by Joe Cain. Well worth reading if you're interested in this area.

Forthcoming Book: "Dear Sir: Sixty-Nine Years of Alfred Russel Wallace Letters to the Editor" edited by Charles H. Smith and Kelsey Patterson

2014-08-13T12:31:00.000+01:00

Leading Wallace scholar, Charles H. Smith of Western Kentucky University, is just finalising a new publication edited by himself along with Kelsey Patterson.

The book will include over 200 letters to the editor by Alfred Russel Wallace published between 1845 and his death in 1913.

Here is the abstract:

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), colleague of Charles Darwin, co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, “father” of the field of evolutionary biogeography, vocal socialist and spiritualist, land reform theorist, intense social critic, etc., etc.,
was one of the most captivating figures of his time. Wallace began his professional career through two great natural history collecting expeditions, one to the Amazon and the other to the Australasian Archipelago; so successful were these that many observers would place him as the front-ranking field naturalist of all time. After he returned to England in 1862, however, his professional emphasis shifted toward writing. His published works included more than twenty books and close to a thousand other items: technical scientific papers, essays, commentaries, book reviews, and, not least, some three hundred letters to the Editor. It is in the last that his temperament comes out most strongly, and it is our privilege in the present work to reproduce more than two hundred of these, extending to all of his many intellectual passions. The philosopher Charles Peirce once wrote of Wallace that he “never wrote a dull line in his life, and couldn’t if he tried”, and the reader here can expect to be entertained accordingly.

The work is being divided into 10 main sections:

Early Letters, 1845 to 1862
Natural Selection, Adaptation and Darwinism
Anthropology/Human Evolution
Spiritualism and Related Subjects
Geology and Physical Geography
Biogeography
Land Reform and Economic Issues
Social and Political Issues
The Anti-Vaccination Campaign
Miscellaneous Subjects

This really reveals the breadth of Wallace's writing throughout the course of his life. And, as the blurb notes, the letters to the editor Wallace published often show his temperament more clearly on the vast array of issues that interested him.

It will be very interesting to see what additional material is used to enhance these published letters to the editor which are already accessible through Smith's excellent Alfred Russel Wallace Page (see the Wallace Resources and Bibliography for more).

The book is planned for publication on 30 November 2014 by Siri Scientific Press. SSP also published Smith's recent work on "Alfred Russel Wallace's 1886–1887 Travel Diary: The North American Lecture Tour" which I reviewed for the British Journal for the History of Science (BJHS) back in December 2013.

Call for Proposals: "The Digital Nineteenth Century" series announced by Palgrave Pivot and NINES

2014-08-05T11:44:00.000+01:00

PalgraveMacmillan has announced a new series on "The Digital Nineteenth Century" within their increasingly popular mini-book publication series: Palgrave Pivot.

Palgrave Pivot was launched in 2012 and the works are usually between 25,000 and 50,000 words in length. Ordinarily they are turned around--after a peer review process--in under 12 weeks.

With the recent announcement they are teaming up with NINES and its director, Andrew M. Stauffer, to create a new series looking at nineteenth century research and its relationship with the digital humanities. A fuller explanation from the NINES website reads:

The proposed Palgrave Pivot series, “The Digital Nineteenth Century,” will publish short-form monographs (30 – 50,000 words) on topics at the intersection of nineteenth-century studies and the digital humanities. Partnering with the NINES Center (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) at the University of Virginia, this series will be retrospective and prospective, involving not only explications of digital projects and theoretical considerations of methods, results, rhetorics, and audiences, but also projections that chart a course for future work. The series will also include free-standing titles for scholars throughout the world not tied to a specific digital project, but rather synoptic studies of a particular method, approach, or thematic in digital nineteenth-century studies. The series aims to provide a growing archival record of the digital nineteenth century across the years.

If you're interested in potentially proposing a book for the series, contact Andrew M. Stauffer (University of Virginia) at ams4k@virginia.edu. Stauffer--who is the NINES Director--will serve as the series' editor.

To see the original post visit the NINES website. For more on the Palgrave Pivot book series see the PalgraveMacmillan website.

2 Interesting Items on reading Marginalia (and a case study of Alfred Russel Wallace)

2014-07-17T10:30:00.000+01:00

How do you react to marginalia? The gentle remarks, questions, or displays of disgust scribbled in the margins of innumerable books, articles and more across the world.

Recently, two things have come to my attention on the matter. First was a BBC Radio 4 programme presented by the poet, Simon Armitage, on 16 June 2014 on "Marginalia". Second, was the book by H. J. Jackson entitled Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books published in 2002.

I have spent a lot of time recently going through marginalia by Wallace in particular. For example, I was recently flicking through (once again) the notes Wallace made to his own Vaccination a Delusion text as well as his highlighting in various anti-vaccination works.

Wallace was not a heavy annotator. They are chiefly a couple of words of comments or (more significantly as with the above image) highlighting of words and sections in blue pencil. These annotations are often infuriatingly vague but can be equally telling. Marginalia are thus very important.

Analysing Marginalia: Case study of Wallace

Martin Fichman in his An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace does a very good short assessment of Wallace's annotations in his own copy of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward currently held at the University of Edinburgh. Fichman carefully picks out those sections Wallace underlines and is able to show how these marks can often be strong indicators of his mindset (see p. 252).

Jackson's Marginalia also includes an interesting section analysing Francis Turner Palgrave's* annotations to Wallace's Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (pp. 211-213) which I will quote in full:

Francis Palgrave’s copy of Alfred Russel Wallace ’s Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), annotated in 1871, shows development of a different kind. In this case, the notes exhibit a reader taking in an argument as a chameleon takes in a fly. For a while he watches to see where it’s going, then he begins to pay close attention, then he attacks, then he digests. Wallace ’s book is a varied collection of essays on natural history; it contains one, for instance, titled “The Philosophy of Birds’ Nests.” In the paper “Mimicry and Other Protective Resemblances among Animals,” Wallace promotes the idea of a “special creation” of “mimicking species.” To strengthen his case, he attempts to anticipate objections. Palgrave underlines a few words and raises an objection. First Wallace: “Against the special creation of mimicking species there are all the objections and difficulties in the way of special creation in other cases, with the addition of a few that are peculiar to it. The most obvious is, that we have gradations of mimicry and of protective resemblance—a fact which is strongly suggestive of a natural process having been at work.” Then Palgrave: “‘Special creation’ is not a probable or very intelligible thing: but it is meant to imply a process contradictory to ‘nature,’ & hence an argt. from natural process does not touch it at all as a general postulate—“ (p. 108). Wallace: “Another very serious objection is, that as mimicry has been shown to be useful only to those species and groups which are rare and probably dying out....” And Palgrave: “How shown? the only fact is, that mimicry is confined to a few individuals” (p. 109).

Eventually, when Wallace maintains that in insects only females exhibit mimicry, Palgrave shows his exasperation with the essayist’s logic and casts up to him a contradiction from an earlier page: “This argument seems to me to involve the idea of special creation in a very specialized form. Unless the variable tendency be confined to the female, the male would also vary into a ‘protected’ form: and though the female, Nature, may be the most valuable, yet the male (for his own sake) wd be glad of protection & would survive the more for it. Or, the argt wh. here accounts for ‘protected’ females annihilates the argument on nymphelides of both sexes” (p. 78). As notes of this sort multiply, Palgrave gradually loses faith in his author, observing at the end of an essay on instinct, “This is an excellent example of Mr. W’s curious combination of fine individual observation & defective powers of reasoning...” (p. 210). Palgrave was a man of letters, not a biologist; he later became professor of poetry at Oxford and is best known for his Golden Treasury. He is not an expert reader, nor an especially good match for Wallace, but he is a good reader, alert and open-minded. Even a small sample from his notes shows that he was thinking independently and critically as he read, testing and adjusting his own position before coming to a settled view.

Annotations and marginalia are thus a hugely valuable resource for the historian especially when we know who the annotator was.

A neglected resource?

We, of course, are perhaps most familiar with the annotations in library books and the like. Sacrilege in many eyes, annoying or rude in others. However, they themselves can become interesting historical sources. Medievalists are perhaps more welcoming to the study of these scribbles than more modern historians (you can see this by searching for "marginalia" and looking at the images. A disproportionate number of them are medieval manuscripts.)

Nonetheless, for more modern historians they still have huge value. Consequently projects such as the Open University's "RED: The experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945" project which features in my list of Digital Humanities research resources you should know about is so interesting as it tries to bring together references to how readers reacted with texts, including their own.

I would be interested to hear how people use annotations in their research. They clearly have a lot of potential but also pose a lot of difficulties. Do you know of any other useful resources for exploiting the notes?

Notes

* Palgrave also appears to have opened up a correspondence with Wallace over the book Wallace Letters Online show up two letter from 14 October and 15 November 1871 from Palgrave to Wallace. As yet I have not read these, but they seem of some interest.

6 Expat academics talk of their experiences in globalised higher education job market

2014-07-10T10:28:00.000+01:00

As I begin to approach the end of my PhD I, like so many others, have to start thinking about jobs once again. As a result, you end up attending a huge number of sessions on post-PhD life.

Some are, of course, not very helpful other are very helpful indeed (for example, see my notes on the HistoryLab event on "Getting Grants, Getting Published and Staying Sane: Life After the PhD"). One of the things that is often mentioned is the internationalisation or globalisation of Higher education. However, in the most part, we don't get to hear experiences of this "from the horses mouth". Inevitably most who could offer advice are abroad and unlikely to think it worthwhile to travel to the UK to give a simple talk on their experiences.

This is where this article in the Times Higher Education* supplement on 26 June is interesting. The article includes the stories of six different academics who struck out abroad with their careers. They include:

Someone who left for the University of Hong Kong from London--Mixed, but a little more on the negative side. High pay, plenty of research time and vibrant city is marked as excellent. However, various administrative issues and conflicts in the "one country, two systems" of post-1997 Hong Kong are flagged up against.
One who left the University of Edinburgh for the University of Auckland, New Zealand--Very positive. Subtitled "Oceanic openness and intellectual vibrancy" which I think says it all. Informality feeds everything and students appear highly engaged. Part of the vibrant oceanic intellectual environment (see also 5 below).
Another who shifted from the University of Strathclyde to the University of Helsinki, Finland--Originally positive, then less so. Highlights the difficulty of finding a permanent post in Finland as a non-Finnish academic.
Someone who moved from the US to the University of Nottingham--Seemingly positive. Highlights how "confusion is the default state" when working abroad. Talks of developing a midatlantic sense of having two homes: the US and UK.
Another who moved from Dublin to the University of South Australia--A very positive experience. highlights that for Australian institutions "internatationalisation" of higher education is a core part of their operations not a bolt on. You get a sense that it is an energetic environment to work in.
Finally, one who is teaching at the University of Verona--Quite a negative experience. As with the Finnish experience, non-nationals seem to be considered second-class citizens in Italian universities. However, I suspect if you only planned to work in Italy for a short period of your career it would not affect you as profoundly.

Although I am certainly not intending working abroad at present, I remain open-minded. There are plenty of options available and the cases in this article are excellent food for thought (although it is sad that cases from the Netherlands, Canada and other largely HE "anglophone" countries were not included). They offer a nice look at some of the opportunities and pitfalls of working abroad as an academic.

If anyone else has any experiences of being an expat academic working abroad please do add some comments either on the original THE article or here. It would be very interesting to hear.

Notes

* You will have to have a THE account to read the full article. But it is free to register and is well worth it.

3 Simple Steps you can do to help the “Alfred Russel Wallace in Translation” Project

2014-07-07T11:30:00.000+01:00

Are you one of those talented people who can read/write a foreign language? Excellent, I have a simple but valuable favour to ask of you.

Why do I need you?

I am currently working on a project to try and bring together all known translations (especially contemporary ones) of the works of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). Already I have managed to uncover over 50 translations in 10 languages.

Unfortunately, as is necessary with a project like this, I am now increasingly reaching the stage where my own personal linguistic abilities are stretched.

This is especially the case for those languages which do not use latin/roman script (such as Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) However, whatever your linguistic strengths any help would be greatly appreciated.

The likelihood is that there are many other works I have missed in languages currently inaccessible to me. However, if you can read/write the language it will take you only a few minutes to find them. For me, however, it would take considerably longer or perhaps even not happen at all.

What would I like you to do? The 3 simple steps…

What I would find extremely handy is if you could do a simple preliminary search in one/some of the various national libraries across the globe. This is how:

1. Find the national library catalogues of the countries that use the language you read/write. This is easily done by finding the country in this Wikipedia list of national/state libraries or searching for “national library of [so and so country]” in your search engine of choice

2. Search for whatever Wallace’s name would appear in local translation (such as Альфред Руссель Уоллэс in Russian). If you feel inclined, a search for "Alfred Russel Wallace" would also be great

3. Email me (wallaceintranslation[at]outlook.com) the link to the catalogue entry (or indeed the data itself).

Want to do more?

If you know of anyone else who may be able to help please do forward them a link to this post. The wider the net that is cast the more likely we will catch the translations; wherever they may be.

Furthermore, if you’re willing to spend a little more time looking that would be superb! You may well know some ideal ways of finding more hidden translations.

Know other public, university or private libraries which may hold Wallace works. Great. Think a private collector you know may have an idea of an item. Brilliant.

Whatever you think may help it will be very warmly received indeed.

What is going to happen to the information?

Currently the resulting material is planned to be written up into a paper which will—for the first time ever—bring together information on Wallace in Translation.

Already, Archives of Natural History have expressed an interest in publishing the resulting paper. Obviously your generosity will be recognised in some way or another.

What is more, I am in the process of developing a site which will list all known translations of Wallace's works and--hopefully--eventually include scans where possible of them. This, of course, will develop over time.

Why is this important?

Translations are very important historical documents. None of them are carbon copies of the original just in a foreign language. Something is always added, adjusted or lost in translation. These changes tell us a lot about how the work was received globally and also something about the context in which it was translated.

Advance Thanks

For those of you able and willing to help I can only thank you for your time and effort. It will be much appreciated.

Roll of Honour

Here is a--rapidly growing--list of those who have already helped so far:

George Beccaloni (Natural History Museum, London)

Juan Manuel Rodriguez Caso (University of Leeds)

Sabrina Harris

Anne Holdorph (University of Southampton)

Becky Holdorph (University of Southampton)
Michèle Kohler (C. C. Kohler, Antiquarian Bookseller)

Hong Kong Central Library (esp. Yvonne Yu)

Det Kongelige Bibliotek Nationalbibliotek og Københavns (esp. Anne Marie Furbo)

Katalin Straner (Central European University, Budapest)

Thank you all!

TALK in London & Oxford: "Indefatigable Naturalists: Wallace and Darwin on the Evolutionary Trail" by Jim Costa

2014-07-03T11:30:00.000+01:00

On 24 and 30 July 2014, Jim Costa will be delivering a paper on Wallace and Darwin entitled "Indefatigable Naturalists: Wallace and Darwin on the Evolutionary Trail" in both London and Oxford.

Here is the abstract:

Alfred Russel Wallace was the last of the great Victorian naturalists, and by the end of his long life in 1913 he was also one of the most famous scientists in the world, lauded by leading learned societies, British royalty and US Presidents alike. Against all odds—lacking wealth, formal education, social standing or connections—Wallace became the pre-eminent tropical naturalist of his day. He founded one entirely new discipline—evolutionary biogeography—and, with Darwin, co-founded another: evolutionary biology. Yet today Darwin's name is universally recognised, while Wallace is all but unknown. Jim traces the independent development of Wallace's and Darwin's evolutionary insights, exploring the fascinating parallels, intersections and departures in their thinking.

Drawing on Wallace's "Species Notebook" (the most important of Wallace's field notebooks kept during his southeast Asian explorations of the 1850s) Costa puts Wallace's thinking into a new light in relation to that of his more illustrious colleague. He also examines the ups and downs of Wallace's relationship with Darwin, and critically evaluates the misleading "conspiracy theories" that Wallace was wronged by Darwin and his circle over credit for the discovery of natural selection. Tracing the arc of Wallace's reputation from meteoric rise in the 19th century to virtual eclipse in the 20th, Costa restores Wallace to his proper place in the limelight with Darwin.

Jim will deliver the paper first at Oxford at 7pm on 24 July in the Geoffrey Thomas Lecture Theatre at Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford. OX1 2JA. See map below.

He will then deliver the paper again at 4.30pm on 30 July in the Flett Theatre at the Natural History Museum, London. See map below.
This second talk at the NHM is the first of the revived annual A. R. Wallace Lecture series first set up by George Beccaloni and Sandy Knapp of the NHM.

Both events are free of charge. You do not need to book tickets for either.

The Annual A. R. Wallace Lecture is organised by the Wallace Correspondence Project.

Map for Oxford event:

Map for London event:

PAPER: "Prometheus Unbound?: Alfred Russel Wallace, Vaccination Acts and the ‘Progress Problem’ in the late-Nineteenth Century" by Ahren Lester

2014-07-01T11:30:00.000+01:00

I have just made my paper entitled "Prometheus Unbound?: Alfred Russel Wallace, Vaccination Acts and the ‘Progress Problem’ in the late-Nineteenth Century" available on Academia.edu. Here is the abstract:

The numerous Vaccination Acts passed between 1840 and 1907 were innovations in every sense of the word. They heralded a new approach to the role of the state in the population’s health. They consolidated the new relationship between the state and medical science. They also ultimately brought forth a new term: ‘conscientious objector.’ For us—sitting in the comfort of the twenty-first century—this innovation was unquestionably a boon to humanity. Smallpox is all but eradicated. In this regard, state-directed schemes such as the Vaccination Acts were key vectors of this victory over one of the great scourges of humanity.

Nonetheless, a significant minority of the population vehemently opposed the Vaccination Acts. Their ranks did contain a number of cranks and charlatans. However, they also included well-respected scientific figures whose opposition was genuine and at least partly justified. One such figure was the co-discoverer of natural selection with Darwin: Alfred Russel Wallace.

This paper considers why Wallace was opposed to such an apparently beneficent procedure. He was no anti-science anti-innovator. Instead he provided a compelling critique of a scientific innovation we take for granted today. He questioned the virtue of state medicine. He questioned the growing power and unaccountability of the medical profession. He questioned their statistical evidence (in the process offering an innovative fully-statistical assessment of the value of a medical procedure).

What emerges is a genuine concern for what may be termed ‘medical ethics.’ This developed from Wallace’s broader belief—unusual at the time—that scientific innovation did not inherently represent a cut-and-dry case of ‘progress.’ Scientific innovations had to be weighed against deeper political, social and ethical considerations. This stance—controversial at the time—appears comparatively commonplace today. Wallace’s prescience reflects a mature and self-conscious appreciation of potential problems of scientific progress in regards to man.

I delivered this paper on 11 June 2014 at the Institute for Historical Research at the University of London. I am hoping to work it up into a paper in due course and so any comments, criticisms or suggestions would be hugely welcome (use the contact me page or the comments section).

UPDATED: A new(ish) book on Wallace in French: "Alfred Russel Wallace, plus darwiniste que Darwin mais politiquement moins correct" by Jacques Reisse

2014-06-28T13:00:00.000+01:00

UPDATED: I received the book this morning (1 July) and have updated the post below adding the table of contents as promised.

Mooching around the library catalogue of the National Library of Armenia (as you do...) I came across a new book (published in 2013) in French on Alfred Russel Wallace I must have missed.

It is by Jacques Reisse* and titled Wallace: Alfred Russel Wallace, plus darwiniste que Darwin mais politiquement moins correct (available both as an eBook and a hard copy) and was published by the Academie Royale de Belgique.

I am quite excited about this. The interest in Wallace in Francophone countries continues to grow. Only recently a French translation of Peter Raby's excellent Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life was published as Alfred R. Wallace, l'explorateur de l'évolution (2013) with a welcome and interesting introduction by the philosopher and historian of science, Jean Gayon.

This growing Francophone interest is important because they clearly have a different perspective on Wallace, Darwin and the history of evolution and science more generally. These fresh perspectives are to be very warmly welcomed especially when considering the more heterodox thinking of Wallace.

The title of Reisse's book is thus of great interest; as is what he has to say in his abstract:

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) est l’un des plus grands naturalistes du 19e siècle. Autodidacte génial, co-inventeur de la théorie de l’évolution, explorateur de régions inconnues d’Amazonie et de l’archipel malais, père de la biogéographie, écologiste avant l’heure mais aussi socialiste, anticapitaliste, antimilitariste, féministe et donc « politiquement incorrect » dans l’Angleterre victorienne.

Wallace est déiste et spiritualiste : il croit a l’existence d’un monde des esprits, à l’existence d’un pouvoir organisateur surnaturel, aux fantômes et en cela, aussi, il est « politiquement incorrect » pour ses collègues et amis comme Huxley, Hooker, Darwin qui cherchent à dégager la science de toute contrainte philosophique ou religieuse et à la fonder sur des bases rationnelles.

Wallace est un personnage fascinant sur le plan scientifique et personnel. Sa vie est un vrai roman !

And in English:

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is one of the greatest naturalists of the nineteenth century. Self-taught genius, co-discoverer of the theory of evolution, explorer of the unexplored Amazon and Malay Archipelago, father of biogeography, early ecologist but also socialist, anti-capitalist anti-militarist, feminist and therefore "politically incorrect" in Victorian England.

Wallace was a deist and spiritualist: believing in the existence of a spirit world, the existence of a supernatural directive power, ghosts and this, too, is "politically incorrect" to friends and colleagues such as Huxley, Hooker, Darwin seeking to detach science from any philosophical or religious constraint and found it on rational bases.

Wallace is a fascinating character scientifically and personally. His life is a real-life novel!

I certainly won't be the one to disagree that Wallace's life is more readable and appealing than many novels and I can't wait to see how Reisse comes to deal with Wallace's "politically incorrect' views. It should be interesting.

I have ordered my copy. Sadly, I fear it will have to sit on my shelf unread for some time before I can get the time. If anyone does read it, please do tell me what you think of it.

As promised, here is the table of contents. After seeing this I am even more excited about finally getting the time to read it:

Biographie d’Alfred Russel Wallace
Wallace et Darwin: des décennies de relations suivies
L’evolution de l’homme selon Wallace
Wallace, Lyell, Spencer et Huxley
Wallace et le monde des esprits
Wallace, père de la biogéographie
Wallace, témoin privilégié de son temps
Wallace, un sociologue politiquement engagé

And again in English:

Biography of Alfred Russel Wallace
Wallace and Darwin: Decades of Close Relations
The evolution of man according to Wallace
Wallace, Lyell, Spencer and Huxley
Wallace and the Spirit World
Wallace, father of biogeography
Wallace, privileged witness of his time
Wallace, a politically engaged sociologist

Notes

* Previously Reisse--who is a member of the Academie Royale de Belgique--also published Charles Darwin et Georges Lemaitre: une improbable mais passionnante rencontre (2008) with Dominique Lambert.

5 Simple Steps to Fix Slow Omnibox/Address Bar Search in Google Chrome

2014-06-27T13:29:00.000+01:00

I have been using Google Chrome as my default browser since 2009. I liked its lightweight nature, clear bookmark bar, apps--and most of all--speed.

One of the most important parts was the Omnibox which allowed you to search Google (or indeed any other search engine) from the address bar just by typing your query in there. It has probably over the years saved me quite a significant amount of time.

However, recently it has been running very slowly indeed. Chrome in general was still running very smoothly and quickly. However, the Omnibox was sluggish often taking several seconds to registers my key presses. It never crashed; it was just slow.

I tried clearing the cache both from Chrome itself and CCleaner but to no avail. After putting up with it for some time I decided I had to sort it out.

What I discovered was that there was, in fact, a hidden cache folder which was not seemingly deleted on clearing the cache. Once I cleared that folder Chrome was back to its full glory (and still is).

How to Clear Hidden Cache Folder

Here is how I fixed the issue (NB: I am using a computer running Windows 7. It may be different for other operating systems):

Close all Chrome windows.
Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del). Under "Processes" tab find the "chrome.exe" files and select "End Process". [This is to make sure all chrome processes are ended. Otherwise you cannot clear the full cache folder].
Open Start Menu. Search for this "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache" in the "Search programs and files" box. This will bring up the "Cache" folder.
Open "Cache" folder. Delete all of its contents.*
Chrome's Omnibox should be working perfectly after this.

Currently I do not know how often I will need to do this to keep Chrome working nicely. This is the first time I have had to do this with Chrome since owning this computer (about 3 years). Consequently, I don't think I will have to do it again for some time.

* If it says that files cannot be deleted because Chrome is still using it it means that you still have "chrome.exe" processes running. If this is the case, redo from stage 2.

Bamboo DiRT: Digital Tools for Digital Humanists

2014-06-26T12:00:00.000+01:00

UPDATE: Since I posted this BambooDIRT has been updated with a new website and logo. Same functionality and top notch curating, however.

There are a huge number of digital tools for digital humanists to sink their teeth into (see for example my post on "Digital Humanities research resources you should know about"). It is unfortunate that--and I am sure I am not alone in this--it is often only through serendipity that you come across them.

Sometimes, sadly, serendipity is rather slow working and slightly slap-dash in her delivery. That is why I am rather excited to have bumped into the Bamboo DiRT site. The site describes itself as a "registry of digital research tools for scholarly use" and it certainly include a large number of excellent digital tools for humanities scholars to take advantage of.

What I particularly like is the fact that it appears to be very well curated. By doing this they have created a nice way of separating the wheat from the chaff making it much easier for scholars new to the digital humanities and the plethora of tools available to them to get started.

You're greeted with an well managed list of things that you may want a digital tool for in the humanities such as:

Writing (Author an interactive work, Blog, Publish and share information, Write a paper, Write collaboratively)
Data Analysis (Analyze data, Analyze texts, Search visually,Collect data, Conduct linguistic research, Visualize data, Make a dynamic map)
Professional Networking (Network with other researchers, Blog, Publish and share information, Share bookmarks, Communicate with colleagues, Stay current with research, Create a mashup)
Transcriptions from hand written or oral sources (Transcribe handwritten or spoken texts)
Workflow tools (Manage bibliographic information, Manage tasks, Organize research materials, Build and share collections, Collect data, Stay current with research, Take notes/annotate resources, Convert/manipulate files, Use an iPad, Edit images, Find research materials, Make a screencast, Brainstorm/generate ideas).

Several of the tools I have come across previously and use regularly, such as the concordance program AntConc. The most important for me is Zotero which is such a core part of my research workflow I can't imagine working without it. Do take a look, however, to see whether it lists anything that may help your research and--obviously--if you use something yourself not included give the editors/curators a message so they can update their list.

What digital tools do you use in your research and what do you use them for? I'd love to find out more about what people utilise to get the most out of their research and material.

UPDATED: 23 Digital Humanities research resources you should know about

2014-06-24T14:46:00.000+01:00

UPDATED on 8 July 2014: I have added a few new resources to the "Multiple Resources" and "Newspapers and Periodicals" sections.

I will be using this page to include any references to online resources and databases that I come across in my research and which I think are useful. This will updated as and when I (or indeed you) come across anything new.

If you have any contributions you think should be included either leave a comment or contact me directly either through the comments section or by email through the contact page.

Multiple Resources

Internet Archive

https://archive.org/

It seems unlikely anyone has searched on the internet without bumping into some Internet Archive resources. Excellent range of materials and often very high quality scans. Sometimes the metadata is not as full or accurate as it could be hoped but otherwise it is an excellent resource.

Internet Archive Book Images

https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/with/14784850762/

This project, which is shared on Flickr tries to make the images scanned as part of the Internet Archive project more accessible to researchers. The search functionality is still, o course, in its infancy but it is a very impressive and useful project when sourcing images.

Gallica

(Bibliothèque nationale de France): http://gallica.bnf.fr/

Excellent French-language resource which includes digitised scans of books, manuscripts, newspapers and more. Excellent quality scans, superb search facility.

Newspapers and Periodicals

California Digital Newspaper Collection

(Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside): http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc

Does exactly as it states providing access to a huge volume of Californian newspapers. Uses a similar system to Trove.

British Newspaper Archive (£)

(British Library): http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Digitizing all the British newspapers held by the British Library. Currently it is in partnership with a company called Brightsolid and as a result is a paid service. Interestingly, as Brightsolid also own Findmypast you can now get access to BNA through a FMP account. The search functionality is not as good as the standalone site, but it is useful.

Welsh Newspapers Online

(National Library of Wales): http://papuraunewyddcymru.llgc.org.uk/en/home?

Relatively new resource which is still in beta. Excellent search functionality and the navigation around the newspapers is excellent. The OCR also appears pretty good which means the results tend to be very good. Well worth a visit.

Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical

(HRI Online): http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/sciper/

A really excellent resource for helping you discover scientific sources in various periodicals and publication in the 1800s. Includes a large number of texts.

Nineteenth Century Serials Edition (NCSE)

(Kings College London): http://www.ncse.ac.uk/index.html

This includes digitized copies of sixth periodicals from the nineteenth century. These are:

Monthly Repository (1806-1837) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833)
Northern Star (1838-1852)
Leader (1850-1860)
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864)
Tomahawk (1867-1870)
Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890)

Comics Collection, University of Florida Digital Collections

(George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida): http://ufdc.ufl.edu/punch

Includes a very comprehensive set of digital scans of some significant British comics including Fun and Funny Folks. According to their site they intend to do the same for Punch.

Correspondence Projects

Alfred Russel Wallace Letters Online

(Natural History Museum, London): http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/scientific-resources/collections/library-collections/wallace-letters-online/index.html

Edited by the Wallace scholar and entomologist George Beccaloni this is of course one of the core online resources I use in my research.

The Wallace Notebooks Collection

(Linnean Society): http://linnean-online.org/wallace_notes.html

This has scanned all the manuscripts written by Wallace currently held at the Linnean Society including his Malay Archipelago and North American notebooks.

Darwin Correspondence Project

(University of Cambridge): http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/

A longstanding and impressive project based at the University of Cambridge which has collected and transcribed every known letter written by or to Charles Darwin. Very impressive. Currently this site has a moving wall for content due to the fact that the correspondence is still first published in hard copy by Cambridge University Press. Currently I think the moving wall is 10 years (i.e. 10 years after the publication of the book the letters come onto the site).

Olive Schreiner Letters Online

(ESRC, Edinburgh University, Sheffield University and Leeds Metropolitan University): http://www.oliveschreiner.org/vre

A nice project piecing together the archive of 4,800 letters by the "New Woman" writer Olive Schreiner. An excellent and clear site.

John Tyndall Correspondence Project

(York University): http://www.yorku.ca/tyndall/

This is a project which currently does not include any letters online. However, that is the intention eventually. They are following a similar procedure as the Darwin Correspondence Project with published collections of the correspondence first followed by them being made available online afterwards. Watch this space!

Joseph Dalton Hooker Correspondence

(Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew): http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/joseph-hooker

A project at its early stages to rediscover the correspondence of the botanist, Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), and digitise them. Currently it is mostly only scans and thus requires quite a bit of work to go through the c.130 pages of scans. A great resource nonetheless.

John Muir Correspondence

(University of the Pacific): http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Digital-Collections/John-Muir-Correspondence.html

A nice collection of the letters to/from the US conservationist, John Muir. The search function and navigation is very good indeed.

John Murray Archive

(National Library of Scotland): http://digital.nls.uk/jma/index.html

Relating to the publisher John Murray and his correspondence. Currently the letters appear to be a very select few to certain correspondents. Hopefully this will grow over time.

The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot

(DeMontford University and University of Glasgow): http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/index.html

Collection of the correspondence of the photography pioneer and polymath William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877).

Sir Hans Sloane's Correspondence Online

https://drc.usask.ca/projects/sloaneletters/doku.php

A little earlier than my usual period (i.e. 1660-1753) but still very interesting to read through.

Official Documents

Old Bailey Online

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

A now very mature and invaluable resource for anyone working in British history. Superb.

Online Historical Population Reports

(University of Essex): http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/

This is an excellent resource which includes scans of a wide variety of official documents providing a plethora of material to look at the population of the UK. The chief documents included are:

There are also a number of other smaller documents which will undoubtedly be of use to many.

Hansard, 1803-2005

(UK Parliament): http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/

Another excellent resource even if it is a little clunky at points. Search facility is not the greatest. On many occasions I have found need to search the site using the Google Advanced Search function.

MISC

RED: The experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945

(Open University): http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/index.php

A really very interesting database which brings together examples of how people read texts throughout a large period. This includes mention of marginalia, papers on papers/books of others and more besides. Very intriguing and potentially very rewarding.

TALK in Cardiff: "Shedding new light on Alfred Russel Wallace’s insect specimens" by Dr George Beccaloni

2014-06-23T19:10:00.001+01:00

Do you want to know more about Alfred Russel Wallace and his entomological collections? If so, you're in luck.

The entomologist and Director of the Wallace Fund, Dr George Beccaloni, is to deliver a paper entitled: "Shedding new light on Alfred Russel Wallace’s insect specimens" in Cardiff on 25 June 2014. Here is the abstract:

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is best known as being the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection and the ‘father’ of zoogeography, however, he was also one of the greatest collectors of tropical insects and other animals of the 19th century. Wallace collected specimens for his private collection and also on a commercial basis for four years in Brazil and eight years in South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and East Timor). During the latter expedition he shipped back almost 110,000 insects to the UK, many of which were species new to science. My talk will give an overview of the insect specimens Wallace collected and where they are now. I will also discuss how my study of his data labels and collecting notebooks (recently digitised as part of the Wallace Correspondence Project) has shed new light on where and when the specimens were collected, adding much to their scientific value.

The paper is part of a series of talks organised as part of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) which is taking place from 22 to 27 June.*

George will be delivering his paper in the Weston Studio of the striking Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay from 11.50 to 12.10.

For the full programme of the event you can download a pdf from the Museum of Wales site. Included is also further information on how to get there etc.

If you're able to go I am sure you will enjoy it greatly. As well as being Director of the Wallace Fund and editor of the Wallace Correspondence Project and its website Wallace Letters Online, George co-edited with Charles Smith an invaluable collection of essays on Wallace entitled: Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace.

BAVS Annual Conference on "Victorian Sustainability" opens for registration

2014-06-23T11:30:00.000+01:00

The British Association for Victorian Studies has opened (from 15 June) registration for its annual conference.

This year it is on "Victorian Sustainability" and will be held at the University of Kent in Canterbury from 4 to 6 September 2014.

As their call for papers explained:

From emerging ideas about the perils of environmental degradation to the establishment of the National Trust, the concept of sustainability began to take on a new importance in the Victorian period that remains relevant in 21st-century modernity.

Full registration is £285 and student registration is £215.

This price includes access to the conference on all three days, lunch and refreshments on each day, 2 nights accommodation on Thursday and Friday, evening meal on Thursday 4th September and the conference dinner on Friday 5th September.

Visit the BAVS Annual Conference registration site to book your place.

Finding 50 Years of "Punch; or, the London Charivari" Digital Archives

2014-06-22T13:18:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite 19th and 20th century publications is the satirical magazine Punch. However, it is often hard to find the volumes for the magazine despite the fact that most are available somewhere online. As a result, I have tried to compile a list of the volumes I have found over time.

Currently I have only compiled them for the period to which I am chiefly concerned (from 1870 to 1919). However, if I have time or the inclination this may well expand.

Help me keep this up-to-date...

If you find anything that could be added or adjusted on this list please do contact me. It will be hugely appreciated.

In particular, keep your eyes open for any of the editions which are currently missing online. Similarly, if you find a better or alternative source for one of the editions I will also add this to the list.

What is more, if you come across additional material for years currently not included please still do contact me and I will bring the information together and publish it in the future.

1870s

Year	Volume(s)		Source(s)
1870	58	59	Google Books
1871	60	61	Internet Archive
1872	62	63	Internet Archive
1873	64	65	Internet Archive
1874	66	67	Internet Archive
1875	68	69	Internet Archive
1876	70	71	Internet Archive
1877	72	73	Internet Archive
1878	74	75	Hathi Trust (v.74)*	Hathi Trust (v.75)*
1879	76	77	Internet Archive

1880s

Year	Volume(s)		Source(s)
1880	78	79	Hathi Trust*
1881	80	81	Hathi Trust*
1882	82	83	Hathi Trust (v.83)*	Missing (v.82)
1883	84	85	Internet Archive
1884	86	87	Hathi Trust (v.86)*	Hathi Trust (v.87)*
1885	88	89	Hathi Trust (v.88)*	Hathi Trust (v.89)*
1886	90	91	Hathi Trust*
1887	92	93	Hathi Trust*	Gutenberg (v.93)^
1888	94	95	Internet Archive
1889	96	97	Internet Archive

1890s

Year	Volume(s)		Source(s)
1890	98	99	Internet Archive
1891	100	101	Internet Archive
1892	102	103	Internet Archive
1893	104	105	Internet Archive
1894	106	107	Missing	Gutenberg (v.107)^
1895	108	109	Internet Archive
1896	110	111	Internet Archive
1897	112	113	Internet Archive
1898	114	115	Internet Archive

1900s

Year	Volume(s)		Source(s)
1900	118	119	Internet Archive
1901	120	121	Internet Archive
1902	122	123	Internet Archive
1903	124	125	Internet Archive
1904	126	127	Internet Archive
1905	128	129	Internet Archive
1906	130	131	Internet Archive
1907	132	133	Internet Archive
1908	134	135	Internet Archive
1909	136	137	Internet Archive

1910s

Year	Volume(s)		Source(s)
1910	138	139	Internet Archive
1911	140	141	Internet Archive
1912	142	143	Missing
1913	144	145	Internet Archive
1914	146	147	Internet Archive
1915	148	149	Internet Archive
1916	150	151	Internet Archive
1917	152	153	Internet Archive
1918	154	155	Internet Archive
1919	156	157	Internet Archive

Notes

* Only available in the US. If you know of a copy available for everyone to view please do contact me and I will update the list.

^ As of writing, these only included select editions of the volumes.

TALK in Croydon: "Alfred Russel Wallace as Social Reformer" by Prof. David Stack on 26 June 2014

2014-06-20T12:12:00.000+01:00

There is a talk being given in Croydon on 26 June 2014 by Prof. David Stack on the University of Reading on "Alfred Russel Wallace as Social Reformer". The abstract reads:

South Croydonian Alfred Russel Wallace developed a theory of evolution but was beaten into print by Charles Darwin. As well as a leading scientist he was an active social reformer on issues like land nationalisation and anti-smallpox vaccination. Prof. Stack will discuss Wallace as social reformer.

Wallace lived in Croydon from March 1878 to 5 May 1881, first on Duppas Hill Lane and then St Peter's Road. During this period he developed his interest in Land Nationalisation and co-founded and was the inaugural president of the Land Nationalisation Society.

This should be a very interesting talk as David has written widely on Wallace as a social reformer both in a chapter in his The First Darwinian Left: Socialism and Darwinism 1859-1914 and in his contribution entitled "Out of "the Limbo of 'Unpractical Politics"': The Origins and Essence of Wallace's Advocacy of Land Nationalization" which appeared in the excellent Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace edited by Charles Smith and George Beccaloni.

The talk is taking place from 7pm at St Augustine Church on St Augustine's Avenue, South Croydon. CR2 6BA. It is free and there is no need to book. For some further information see the Croydon Heritage Festival page.

Transcription Help: Can you read this 1 word in a John Lindley (1799-1865) letter?

2014-06-18T14:53:00.000+01:00

As part of my work on Alfred Russel Wallace and his introduction to botanical study, I had to go to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) archives held by University College London (though currently housed at the National Archives).

There I wanted to look at the correspondence with the SDUK of the botanist and inaugural Professor of Botany at UCL, John Lindley (1799-1865), to see if it threw up anything interesting for my research. This it certainly did.

The research has so far thrown up some interesting notes about the authorship of SDUK texts which were more often than not published anonymously. Some were wrongly attributed to Lindley and other currently unattributed to Lindley.

However, Lindley's handwriting oscillated between beautifully legible to belligerently illegible. As a result, I am currently baffled as to whether Lindley assisted or wrote the SDUKs Vegetable Substances text. The important word for ascertaining this can be found in the below scan:

As it stands, I believe that the word which overlaps the end of line 4 and start of line 5 (clearly intended to be one word) is "examining". However, the "x" appears so far from looking like an "x" I am far from certain.

This is how I have the transcription currently:

I have received reply to the sum of Ten Guineas (£10.10.0) on acct. of the Society of Useful Knowledge for [examining] the volumes of Vegetable Substances and in thanks for which I am much obliged.

What are people's views on this? Do you think it says "examining" or an alternative word? Please do comment below or contact me directly if you have any thoughts.

Getting Your Academic Work Published

2014-06-11T09:34:00.000+01:00

On 5 June 2014 I attended the "Getting Grants, Getting Published and Staying Sane: Life After the PhD" event at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London organised by HistoryLab+. Links to the full "series" can be found here.

The bread and butter work of the academic world is undoubtedly the publication of research. Consequently, appreciation of the challenges and opportunities available to PhD students after their graduation is important. Emma Brennan, Barry Doyle and Jane Winters explored this important area in session 3.

Publishing Your Thesis

It is important to recognise that your PhD in itself is not a book ready to be given a neat cover. As Emma Brennan stressed: your thesis is not a book.

Due to the way the book retail market is operated many books which are clearly derived from theses are explicitly not purchased by American universities. This is because theses can be got hold onto with minimal effort and expense by any university library. Thus shelling out for a hardback copy of thesis that can often be gotten online is not really considered.

As a result, most if not all university presses and commercial presses are not interested in publishing a thesis 'as is'. So what are you to do with your thesis?

Maybe you could turn your thesis into a series of journal articles? This is perhaps the most immediately obvious alternative. However, due to the dominant position books have in the academic hierachy this is not the most ideal solution.

Alternatively, you could figure out a section of your thesis which is calling out for further research and use that as a springboard to develop your book idea. By doing this you could use something like 30 to 60% of your thesis as the foundations of your book. Clearly, by doing this then it would render the book unique enough to be considered a piece of research beyond that offered by your thesis.

Remember to refashion your introduction for publication. Theses and book introductions are incredibly different. Remove the clunky bits of an introduction such as the literature review. Nonetheless, still provide context but this time for non-experts. In other words, broaden out the context.

Always cut down the footnotes.

Consider cutting down the bibliography. Indeed, if it is a particularly lengthy one consider replacing it with a "Select Bibliography".

Consider adding additional material for the reader. This could include a glossary, a timeline, etc. All these things will help the more general, non-expert reader.

Royal Historical Society's Studies in History series

Although most commercial and university presses may not consider theses as they are, the RHS's Studies in History series does.

Not only are they happy to receive PhD theses but they also offer a mentor scheme--if you want it--for those who are offered to publish with them. Thus members of the editorial board offer to support you from start to finish with any of your queries. This is in recognition of the fact that your first publication can often be a daunting experience filled with unfamiliarity.

What is more, if you submit a proposal which is not so glittering but the editorial team feel that the idea is still potentially good they may offer you the chance to resubmit.

What do Publishers Want?

So what exactly are publishers on the look out for?

Firstly, the shorter the book the better. They are cheaper to publish and quicker to turn around. A word length of between 70,000 and 100,000 is ideal.

Do you need illustrations? If not, that is all the better. The need to get permissions for the images and to typeset them adds extra cost both financially and time wise. Do not feel you need pictures if they are not entirely necessary. Obviously, if the work is intended as a more popular work then this may be deemed more appropriate to include images.

How long do you think it will take to get the publishers a draft? Give them a good idea so that they can fashion that into the publication schedule. Be reasonable. Don't offer a time which is either too long or short to get the project finished.

If this is your first book, be prepared to be asked to send in a sample chapter or a draft manuscript. If you have not published before they will have no way of judging what to expect from you.

Pitching Your Project

In order to get the pitch for your book right go to your library and look at what else is published in or around your field. How do they present their work. What about similar books in the publisher range specifically? How did they sell their project? Why do you think it succeeded?

Have a look for book series. If there is a series in which your work would fit snugly. Definitely consider them very strongly. If you can find one that fits well then the series itself has already provided a hefty appeal to your pitch before you have even written or submitted it. Often the editorial teams for these series will also be more familiar with your field and thus be able to provide far better guidance.

Think about your title very carefully. To help you, think about keywords for your work. What are they? How could you get them into a short, catchy and yet effective description of your work. By doing this you will start to build up the elements of an effective book title. It may be useful to keep thinking about whether or not your title would result in it coming high in search engines.

Remember to write your proposal as if the proposal were the book itself. Make your writing interesting and accurate. The same should be said of the sample chapter. These are the ways in which the publishers will have to decide whether you are worthwhile giving time to getting published. If your proposal or sample chapter is poorly written--even if you see it only as a draft--how are they supposed to know whether you can write the book well?

Journals or Books?

Journals have a number of benefits over books. First, it is easier and usually quicker to get a journal article published. As a result, you are able to populate your CV quicker through articles. At the start of your career this is clearly an important factor.

Furthermore, journal articles often offer a far wider audience than a book. Whereas an academic book may only sell a few hundred copies mostly to university libraries (and thus could just sit passively on shelves for long periods of time) journal articles may reach many thousands and are far more easily available globally.

Remember, you can submit your book to many publishers at the same time but never submit an article to more than one journal at a time.

How to choose your journal

Of course, you also have the difficulty of choosing your journal. Do you want a specialist journal in your field or a more generalist journal? Usually specialist publications have a faster turnaround time than generalist publications (certainly the more popular ones).

Jane Winters advises that just as you should try and strike a balance between books and journals in the publication history so you should have a fine mix of generalist and specialist journal articles.

Do you research into the journal. Ask your supervisors advice. Talk to the editor of the journal as to whether or not your article is appropriate. Maybe even consider their response and turnaround times.*

Also, look into whether the journal encourages postgraduate and early career research papers. As a result, they may be more amiable towards those new to the process and be better able to help you where needed.

How To Structure a Journal Article

Jane Winters also provided a short run down of the important structural elements of an academic article:

Introduction
Context and background--Often missed out by writers. Why is you work important? How does it add to the field?
Methodology (where appropriate)
Research findings and examples
Conclusion

Also remember again that this is not just a short thesis. Consider your audience. If it is to be published in a generalist journal, add a bit more context and ensure that the ideas are very clearly expressed.

Dealing with Peer Reviews

Never take criticisms from peer reviewers personally. They are trying to help. Books are rarely anonymously peer reviewed. In contrast, journal articles nearly always are.

Emma Brennan advises that you always try and give yourself a week before replying to peer reviews. This ensures that no response is a rush of blood to the head affair which you will be embarrassed about later or may be misconstrued.

*There is a very useful wiki called "History Journal Response Times" which is perfect for getting a feel for how long you should expect to find out whether your article has been accepted or not. More broadly there is also a newer one on the "Humanities Journals Wiki".

BSHS Masters Bursaries: Four awards for £4,000 available for History of Science Students

2014-06-09T16:28:00.001+01:00

The British Society for the History of Science has announced that they have opened the competition for four bursaries they have for masters students in the History of Science. The deadline is 30 June 2014.

The bursaries are worth £4,000 each and are available for students who are starting their Masters programme this academic year coming (i.e. 2014/15). The details are:

Applicants must have a confirmed place on a master's programme in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. Those studying for research-based master's degrees are eligible to apply, but not PhD students nominally registered for MPhil (or similar) provisionally pending upgrade to PhD registration. There is no nationality requirement for applicants, or an age limit. Non-members of the Society are welcome to apply.

Although they say that non-members are welcome to apply, I would strongly encourage anyone to join the society. It is an extremely active society and publishes the British Journal for the History of Science.* That being said, if you're successful you get a year's membership bundled in too as well as free registration to the BSHS Postgraduate Conference.

More details on how to apply can be found on the BSHS website. Good luck to anyone who is applying.

Notes

*See my posts on my book reviews published in the BJHS for June and December 2013

Alfred Russel Wallace, the Royal Society and the HMS Challenger Expedition (1872-1876)

2014-06-08T13:35:00.002+01:00

George Beccaloni of the Natural History Museum and Wallace Fund has published a short post about Wallace's involvement with the famous HMS Challenger science expedition which took place in the 1870s.*

Wallace was sent a copy of the 'deep sea deposits' volume of the Challenger report which was edited by the oceanographer--as opposed to the publisher--John Murray.^

George then discovered that Wallace's involvement with the Challenger expedition went deeper than just personal correspondence with the Challenger project members. He was also appointed as a member of the committee for the expedition back on 21 March 1872. Indeed, as Charles Smith has noted, Nature published a note of his membership of the committee on 31 October 1872.

This was still a period when Wallace was comparatively heavily involved in the scientific societies of the UK (indeed, within a year of being elected to the Challenger committee he was elected to the Council of the newly-founded Anthropological Institute). Wallace still lived close to London before his removal to Dorset which may have influenced his decision to be so involved. However, the 1870s was still a period when Wallace had not developed his slowly evolving critique of the shifting nature and position of the Victorian scientific establishment.

It would be extremely interesting to see the minutes of the Challenger committee meetings which are still held, it seems, at the Royal Society in London. Did Wallace attend them often? Did he involve himself heavily in its decisions? Was he only a member for a short time? These are only really questions that can be answered by rooting through the papers.

Who owns Wallace's copy of the Challenger Report?

Incidentally, if anyone knows who now owns the inscribed copy sent to Wallace by Murray I would be very grateful if you could put us in contact with them. It would be very interesting to see whether we could see whether Wallace included any interesting annotations in the text.

Wallace regularly referenced the Challenger expedition in his works and thus it seems likely that the reports (there were, as George notes, 50 such reports) would have been heavily used by Wallace in his work.

Notes

*George has so far managed to discover almost all the people named except the "Dr. Williamson". Williamson in this case was William Crawford Williamson (1816-1895).

^ It was annotated with "Alfred Russel Wallace, Esqr. | With the compliments of the Editor of the Challenger Reports | May 1892." See the sale details on Byass Rare Books here.

Making the Transition from PhD Student to Junior Academic

2014-06-07T11:32:00.000+01:00

On 5 June 2014 I attended the "Getting Grants, Getting Published and Staying Sane: Life After the PhD" event at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London organised by HistoryLab+. Links to the full "series" can be found here.

UPDATE: I recently came across this interesting article in The Guardian by Adam Dunn about "Early Career Research: The Power of 'No'" which may be of interest.

Few PhD students thinking of going into academia are under any illusions as to the sharp difference between being a PhD student and entering into the world of professional academia. Nonetheless, the first session of the event was a welcome one on "Making the Transition". The speakers were Emily Robinson (University of Sussex), Daniel Gerrard (St Peter's College, Oxford) and Catherine Armstrong (Loughborough University).

1: Hunting for a Job

They all highlighted how hard it is to enter into academia. Very few routes into the profession are smooth. Certainly, it is now almost unheard of for PhD students to smoothly move from their PhD straight into a permanent position.

Consider Other Departments and Disciplines

One of the first bits of advice was not to immediately limit the scope of your application process. Be open minded about the departments you can apply to.

Obviously they were not advocating carpet bombing the History, English, Philosophy and Politics departments of every university that catches your fancy. However, be aware that, for example, English departments often find historians attractive as members of staff (and indeed vice versa). Historians with an acute literary eye can bring new perspectives.

Similarly, don't be afraid to teach classes outside your discipline. In an increasingly interdisciplinary world this will not be frowned upon and may well help bolster your CV.

A Few Lines, A Lot of Information

They also noted that you should consider putting together a little short piece of a few lines which seels you and your research interests. Ask yourself and answer them in these lines:

What exactly are you doing as a scholar?
what makes you special?
How does this research focus inform your teaching?
Where will it lead you going forward research wise?

Awareness of Future Projects is Important

On that final point, be aware that you should have started thinking seriously about your future projects. Where do you want to go with your research. What naturally progresses out of your previous work? Or, if you feel that research line is drained, where are you heading next, and why?

What is more, don't just think about the next project you wish to immediately follow. What about the one after that? It will give you a better idea of where you're going not only for yourself but for possible employers.

Tell People the Search is On

Remember to tell people that you are looking for a job or will be shortly. If you don't tell them they are unlikely to know. But if they do know they may--when they hear of a position available--think to contact you about it.

All of us have heard about events etc. which were perfect but which we missed. Imagine if that was the ideal job. Getting your name out there will increase the chance of serendipity stepping in and making you aware of a job you would not ordinarily have come across.

Start Applying early

Don't start job hunting after your have submitted but before your viva. Get started early. This way you will get your eye in for how to best apply. What works and what does not. Where are the jobs in your field most coming up. All is useful information.

What is more, if you start applying before it reaches the panic stage you may find that you can dedicate more time to creating applications and getting to know what they want and don't want. This will set you up well ready for when the panic period does set in.

On a more practical note, many positions such as post-doctoral/junior research fellowships have very early closing dates. Find out those dates early and plan accordingly.

Think Internationally

For some people there is the possibility to think internationally. If you can consider teaching abroad, do so. With the increasing internationalisation of higher education it is far from a black mark against your name. Indeed, it is very much a positive.

Naturally, international applications require different skills. For example, American applications tend to require a greater deal of evidence of teaching.

Think Nationally

You must be willing to travel fairly widely. Look for jobs around you, certainly. But look beyond your immediate area. You will increase your chances of getting a role and increase your experience.

Link Your Topic to Current Work in Institution

When setting out your application, try and work out where a potential course your could teach could supplement current modules run at the institution. You may find that a course you feel you're ideal to set up will dovetail perfectly with one already operating. Highlight it. It shows you have thought about your application and shows that you can immediately become integrated into the current departments academic work.

Handling Weird Personal Specifications

Some personal specifications are written--at least in part--by HR departments. As a result they can offer have an odd-sounding tone. For example, they could talk about proof of a 'customer focus'. If this is the case, include answers to these questions as a separate section of your application. Make it clear that it is in answer to very specific requests for an application.

You may find that these questions will be needed to pass through the HR department through to the academics who will assess your application. Definitely answer them even if once through to the academic assessors they may seem rather silly. If you make it clear that it is in specific answer to these specifications then you can both answer them and avoiding sounding foolish.

2: Early Days as a Junior Academic

Once you have got a job of some description, whether part-time, full-time, temporary or permanent you still have work to do. This is what the panel offered:

"Traps" for Post-Doctoral Work

Academia is a world in which there are a number of things that seem like the first rungs up the ladder but in fact are the first rungs up the step ladder next to the ladder. Consequently, they highlighted, what Daniel Gerrard termed, the "traps" for new lecturers:

Time spent teaching is not spent on research. As a result, as research is the chief currency for progressing in academia you will find yourself falling behind your peers.
Universities run on informal work such as favours, etc. However, jobs follow formal lines of promotion. As a result, the informal work that makes departments run do not easily or directly feed into helping you get jobs.
The academic system up to PhD is founded on a rational system. In other words, you work hard and do well and you will be rewarded. The academic system after PhD is an irrational system in which connections and luck play more of a role. Should be aware of this as you move between the stages.

Next Stage of the Apprenticeship

One thing I often say to people is that I see a PhD not as a qualification per se but as an apprenticeship into academia. This was echoed by Catherine Armstrong, she highlighted that certainly some aspects of academia can be exploitative, but you should see many of them (such as teaching experience) as an extension of that apprenticeship.

Become Part of the Department...No matter What Your Role

Although the thread of caution as to informal work that keeps universities running was certainly obvious, they also encouraged getting involved in the department.

Even if you are only teaching a handful of lessons, get involved in the meetings affecting teaching direction. It is relevant to you and will get you known in the department. It was noted that many temporary teaching staff are almost invisible in the department as they rarely involve themselves.

Of course, it was also highlighted that sometimes that is impossible. If you are travelling many miles to a job for a few hours, unless the meeting/department event coincides with you being on campus it is nigh on impossible to attend them.

Nonetheless, you can still be part of the department in spirit even if being so in person is beyond possibility. If you can't attend meetings make sure you get and read the minutes. Ask questions. Raise items. Get involved.

Make Sure You Get Full Value from Your Activities

As the "traps" part notes, there are many time-sapping activities which may not count for much in an application formally. However, ensure that these informal activities are advertised in some way or another in your application for other jobs. Choose your referees for this purpose. Ask them to make sure that your informal departmental activities are highlighted in their references.

Some Useful Websites Mentioned

jobs.ac.uk--Excellent for higher education jobs in the UK and beyond. Also highlighted that it includes a large section on advice for academic job hunters.
h-net.org--Very good for positions in the US. Also very good for various international events and conferences.

HistoryLab+ Event: "Getting Grants, Getting Published and Staying Sane: Life After the PhD"

2014-06-07T11:30:00.000+01:00

On 5 June 2014, HistoryLab+ organised an event at the Institute for Historical Research at the University of London entitled "Getting Grants, Getting Published and Staying Sane: Life After the PhD".

They are, of course, my notes and as a result although chiefly derived from my handwritten notes on the day will include my own misunderstandings of what the speakers themselves said and additional things I thought of as the talks took place.

Below are the links to my notes from the different sessions on the day which I will update as and when I get time to write them up:

1: Making the Transition from PhD Student to Junior Academic

2: Getting Your Academic Work Published

TALK in Cardiff: "Wallace, Darwin and human evolution" by Chris Stringer

2014-06-05T12:41:00.000+01:00

If anyone is in or around Cardiff on 10 June there is an interesting talk on "Wallace, Darwin and human evolution" taking place at Cardiff University in the Wallace Lecture theatre from 6.30pm.

I saw a paper delivered on much the same subject by Chris Stringer, who works at the Natural History Museum in London, at the Royal Society late last year and it was very interesting.

I am still waiting to get the time to finally start and finish his Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain which has been on my reading list for about a year. It was well received at the time winning the Best Archaeology Book Award and Kistler Book Award in 2008. Certainly, the opening chapters I have read were very interesting and well written. But I will have to reserve judgement on the bulk of the book for now.

If anyone does get to go--unfortunately I will be in London delivering a paper myself--please do tell me what he had to say and what you thought.

The lecture is free and more information is available on the Cardiff University events page.

NEW BOOK: "On the Organic Law of Change" by James T. Costa

2014-06-04T11:48:00.000+01:00

This morning I received a new book ready for review: On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace's Species Notebook of 1855-1859 by Jim Costa.

I have been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy for review. Wallace's species notebooks were the field notebooks which Wallace wrote during his time in the Malay Archipelago (1854-1862). Of course, this period of his life is now immortalised due to it being the period in which he independently co-discovered the theory of natural selection with Darwin in 1858.

Costa has already published the excellent Annotated Origin of Species which I cannot recommend enough to people. With this work the left-hand of the page included a scan of the first edition of the Origin of Species and the right-hand had Costa's annotations.

For those new to the history of evolution Costa's annotations are a hugely useful guide through this seminal work. What is more, even for those familiar with the Origin of Species his annotations are extremely useful and insightful and his position at the forefront of contemporary debates means that he often brings the reader up to speed with current thinking.

As a result, it is going to be extremely exciting to explore these notebooks with Costa's editorial guidance. What is clear from the outset is the sheer amount of work that has gone into it. The layout is broadly the same as his annotated Origin with necessary adjustments due to the different nature of the primary material.

The reader is thus presented with a double-page spread for each page of the notebook. The left-hand page includes both the scan of Wallace's handwritten notes and the transcription of these notes. On the right hand pages are Costa's annotations: sometimes extensive, sometimes minimal.

My quick perusal of this so far offers a very good impression. The transcriptions I have read are highly accurate and largely complete. The annotations strike the balance of detailed where appropriate, cogent where possible and clear throughout. Hopefully once I have had the time to dive fully into the book rather than just dipping my toes into it I will come out with the same conclusion.

NB: The full review of this book will probably be a while away as it is currently intended that this will be reviewed alongside Costa's other recent work on Wallace, Wallace, Darwin, and the Origin of Species.

SYMPOSIUM in Oxford: What is a Letter? An Interdisciplinary Approach, 2 to 4 July 2014

2014-06-03T11:22:00.000+01:00

Registration for the interdisciplinary symposium on "What is a Letter?" is now open. It will be taking place at St Edmund's Hall, University of Oxford between 2 and 4 July 2014. The blurb describes it as this:

The symposium ‘What is a letter? An interdisciplinary approach’ will bring together experts on letter writing from a diverse range of disciplines (including literary and cultural studies in a number of modern languages, linguistics, editorial studies, sociology, and history), countries (including Austria, Britain, and Germany), and institutions (including universities, museums, and libraries).

Against the background of a rapidly and internationally growing number of research and editing projects which centre around letters, the aim of the symposium is threefold: (i) to initiate a much-needed dialogue between disciplines (and scholars from different countries) about the theoretical concepts of ‘the letter’ which form the basis for any engagement with epistolary culture; (ii) to lay the foundations for an inclusive and interdisciplinary methodology for analysing letters, taking into account their subject-specific definitions and uses, and (iii) to make the results of these efforts available to other scholars through publication of the conference proceedings.

Please note: English and German are the working languages of the symposium. An interpreter will be present to summarize papers and assist with the discussion.

It looks like a very interesting event cover a subject which many researchers (especially in the nineteenth-century history) have to deal with extensively.

For Alfred Russel Wallace, the sheer volume of correspondence made available by the Wallace Correspondence Project through its Wallace Letters Online (WLO) site means that letters have the potential to form a hugely significant part of even the smallest piece of research into Wallace in the future.

As such, with projects like WLO and many others, the need to think more critically--and indeed interdisciplinary--about how to analyse these letters is transparently growing in importance. With the primary material itself more accessible than ever, knowing how to appreciate and understand it correctly needs to be well thought out.

You can find out more about the event on the "What is a Letter?" blog. Details on how to register are here. The conference fee is £18.

Ahren Lester

Paper: Homing In: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Homes in Britain (1852 to 1913)

Forthcoming Book: "Dear Sir: Sixty-Nine Years of Alfred Russel Wallace Letters to the Editor" edited by Charles H. Smith and Kelsey Patterson

Call for Proposals: "The Digital Nineteenth Century" series announced by Palgrave Pivot and NINES

2 Interesting Items on reading Marginalia (and a case study of Alfred Russel Wallace)

Analysing Marginalia: Case study of Wallace

A neglected resource?

Notes

6 Expat academics talk of their experiences in globalised higher education job market

Notes

3 Simple Steps you can do to help the “Alfred Russel Wallace in Translation” Project

Why do I need you?

What would I like you to do? The 3 simple steps…

Want to do more?

What is going to happen to the information?

Why is this important?

Advance Thanks

Roll of Honour

TALK in London & Oxford: "Indefatigable Naturalists: Wallace and Darwin on the Evolutionary Trail" by Jim Costa

PAPER: "Prometheus Unbound?: Alfred Russel Wallace, Vaccination Acts and the ‘Progress Problem’ in the late-Nineteenth Century" by Ahren Lester

UPDATED: A new(ish) book on Wallace in French: "Alfred Russel Wallace, plus darwiniste que Darwin mais politiquement moins correct" by Jacques Reisse

Table of Contents

Notes

5 Simple Steps to Fix Slow Omnibox/Address Bar Search in Google Chrome

How to Clear Hidden Cache Folder

Bamboo DiRT: Digital Tools for Digital Humanists

UPDATED: 23 Digital Humanities research resources you should know about

Multiple Resources

Internet Archive

Internet Archive Book Images

Gallica

Newspapers and Periodicals

California Digital Newspaper Collection

British Newspaper Archive (£)

Welsh Newspapers Online

Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical

Nineteenth Century Serials Edition (NCSE)

Comics Collection, University of Florida Digital Collections

Correspondence Projects

Alfred Russel Wallace Letters Online

The Wallace Notebooks Collection

Darwin Correspondence Project

Olive Schreiner Letters Online

John Tyndall Correspondence Project

Joseph Dalton Hooker Correspondence

John Muir Correspondence

John Murray Archive

The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot

Sir Hans Sloane's Correspondence Online

Official Documents

Old Bailey Online

Online Historical Population Reports

Hansard, 1803-2005

MISC

RED: The experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945

TALK in Cardiff: "Shedding new light on Alfred Russel Wallace’s insect specimens" by Dr George Beccaloni

BAVS Annual Conference on "Victorian Sustainability" opens for registration

Finding 50 Years of "Punch; or, the London Charivari" Digital Archives

Help me keep this up-to-date...

1870s

1880s

1890s

1900s

1910s

Notes

TALK in Croydon: "Alfred Russel Wallace as Social Reformer" by Prof. David Stack on 26 June 2014

Transcription Help: Can you read this 1 word in a John Lindley (1799-1865) letter?

Getting Your Academic Work Published

Publishing Your Thesis

Royal Historical Society's Studies in History series

What do Publishers Want?

Pitching Your Project

Journals or Books?

How to choose your journal

How To Structure a Journal Article

Dealing with Peer Reviews

BSHS Masters Bursaries: Four awards for £4,000 available for History of Science Students

Notes

Alfred Russel Wallace, the Royal Society and the HMS Challenger Expedition (1872-1876)

Who owns Wallace's copy of the Challenger Report?