The Wallace Correspondence Project's Office Opens For Business

On Wednesday 18th April 2018, the WCP team began work in the project's splendid new office in Buckhust Hill, Essex (address HERE). The office is on two levels, with three workspaces on the first floor and another, plus a tiny kitchen and toilet, on the second floor. We have now purchased nearly all the equipment we need, ranging from computers, to chairs, to a small fridge, microwave, kettle, pencils and paperclips. The layout of the office is perfect: although the staff are working fairly near each other and can easily interact, they all have quiet workspaces, which is very important for the work they will be doing. The two new project staff, Charlotte (Archivist) and Helen (Researcher), officially started work on the 16th and they have already almost finished carefully editing the transcripts of 100 letters.


The WCP team. From left to right: Charlotte Robinson, Helen Watt & George Beccaloni


Left and middle photos show the first floor workspaces; while the photo on the right shows the second floor workspace and the kitchen beyond.

During the current grant (which ends 1st September 2020) the project team, helped by volunteers and contract staff, aims to produce a new version of Wallace Letters Online (the current version doesn't work properly, is not easy to use, and is impossible for us to update), plus volume 1 of The Correspondence of Alfred Russel Wallace, which will contain the first 500 letters written or received by Wallace. We will also be transcribing letters, editing, annotating and writing summaries of them, searching for letters we don't already have, checking the metadata of the letters already catalogued in our database, AND (importantly!) trying to find additional funding to enable us to complete the project and publish all of Wallace's correspondence (an estimated 10 thick volumes).

The WCP thanks the John Templeton Foundation (especially Dr Paul Wason) and The Charles Darwin Trust (Dr Randal Keynes, Nancy Rossi and Karen Goldie-Morrison in particular) for their belief in the project and all their hard work towards making Phase 2 of the WCP a reality.

Add new comment

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith