Darwin Didn't Plagiarize Wallace

19th century shipping records defy the claim that Charles Darwin stole some of Alfred Russel Wallace's ideas to craft his theory of evolution.

Written byBob Grant

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Charles Darwin in 1881WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, ELLIOTT & FRY

New evidence is casting doubt on the popular belief that Charles Darwin may have borrowed some ideas from naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace when developing his theory of evolution by natural selection. The story goes that in 1858 Wallace, studying the biogeography of the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia, wrote a letter to Darwin outlining his thoughts on how nature might select the most advantageous traits among living things in such a way that species could change forms and functions gradually over long periods of time. Darwin was to deliver Wallace's letter to renowned geologist Charles Lyell immediately, but instead lied about the date he received the correspondence, held onto it for two weeks, and cribbed from it to add to his own ideas on evolution.

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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