Alfred Russel Wallace, Geographer

Abstract

Among the great explorers and thinkers who advanced geography in the nineteenth century and helped it evolve into the subject that exists today is a man who is not always connected with the field, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). Most commonly recognized as 'the other man' in the history of the discovery of the principle of natural selection, Wallace's commitment to the study of landscape and its physical, biological, and human elements was lifelong, and resulted in a wide range of contributions to biogeography, physical geography, human geography, and ethnography. In this year of the double anniversaries of Charles Darwin's birth and the publication of On the Origin of Species, a short review of Wallace's contributions is offered in an effort to characterize Wallace as 'a geographer who happened to be interested in evolution'. © 2010 The Author. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.