Charles Darwin Autograph Note Signed To Alfred Russel Wallace.

DARWIN, Charles [Alfred Russel Wallace].

Item Number: 90590

Rare autograph note signed by Charles Darwin to fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. The note reads, “Oct. 27 Down, Beckenham Kent Can you tell me Mr. Fr. Geach’s address? I want to send him my book.” With the address in Darwin’s had on the verso: “A.R. Wallace The Dell Grays Essex.” The two leading figures in the development of the theory of evolution through natural selection, Darwin and Wallace’s theories differed slightly. Darwin argued that competition between members of the same species led to adaptation, while Wallace asserted that environmental pressures led populations of various locations to diverge. In 1858, Darwin and Wallace published a joint publication: On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection,’ the content of which Darwin would develop into his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species, published the following year. In near fine condition. Double matted and framed with a photograph of Darwin. Double matted and framed. The entire piece measures 18.5 inches by 13.5 inches. An exceptional example linking two of the leading minds in the theory of evolution.

One of the most important figures in human history, English naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin became internationally renowned for his contributions to the science of evolution. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors and, in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favored competing explanations and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.