Darwin and Wallace's joint paper on evolution

'The life of wild animals is a struggle for existence [...] in which the weakest and least perfectly organized must always succumb.'
Alfred Russel Wallace

The theory of evolution by natural selection was jointly proposed by Darwin and Wallace in this scientific article, which was first read at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858.

At that point, Darwin had been working privately on the theory for 20 years, but in early 1858 he received a letter from Wallace that completely changed his plans.

Wallace, feverish with malaria on an island in the Malay Archipelago, had a flash of inspiration: he realised that species evolved through natural selection. He immediately wrote an essay on the subject, sending it to Darwin because he knew Darwin was interested in the subject.

Darwin's friends suggested that, rather than lose priority, and to avoid looking as though he had stolen Wallace's idea, he should announce his work jointly with Wallace.

This paper was the result. It is split into three parts: first, an extract from a manuscript by Darwin; second, an abstract of a letter from Darwin to Professor Asa Gray, dated 1857, included to reinforce that Darwin did not steal Wallace's ideas; and, finally, the essay written by Wallace.

The essay's unexpected arrival spurred Darwin into writing his famous book On the Origin of Species, which was published 15 months later in November 1859.

Explore other key objects related to the theory of evolution >