Paula Lucas (right) will be employed by the WCP as a freelance Editor/Researcher, working closely with the WCP's Researcher Helen, Archivist Charlotte and Director George, to begin the huge task of meticulously editing and annotating the trancripts of Wallace's early letters for publication in Volume 1 of The Correspondence of Alfred Russel Wallace. Paula has kindly done excellent voluntary work for the WCP for many years and has an in-depth knowledge of Wallace's correspondence, having catalogued the large collection of letters and other documents now in the London Natural History Museum's library, which George Beccaloni helped obtain from Wallace's grandsons in 2002.
Paula writes:
"From the 1980s I worked as a research assistant for the Ferdinand von Mueller Correspondence Project, transcribing 19th century letters between Mueller, the Hookers of Kew, Darwin and a host of explorers and plant collectors, at many archives in Britain including the Natural History Museum, London. Being fairly famiiar with the handwriting and peculiarities of many 19th century natural history giants I was contracted from 2002 to 2004 to catalogue the collection of A. R. Walllace papers acquired from the Wallace family in 2002. Later I became a volunteer transcriber for the Wallace Correspondence Project and have both transcribed, provided endnotes and occasionally proofread and edited the transcriptions of others, overseen by the then project Archivist Ruth Benny. The great thing about Wallace's letters - apart from their content - is that he had beautifully readable handwriting! (Not something that applies to all of his correspondents, alas). And his letters from America to his children are wonderful."
Welcome to the team Paula!
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