"What this should hopefully do is result in a major upgrade in the quality of writing about Wallace," the historian told BBC News.
"Next year is the centenary of his death. Just like 2009 was the big Darwin year, 2013 will be the big Wallace year. And I hope now that people have access to all of his literature, it will make a big difference to what they say and write about him."
Wallace Online gathers together in one place for the first time all of the naturalist's writings and illustrations.
There are 28,000 pages of searchable documents and 22,000 images. Among the online gems is that first announcement of the theory of evolution delivered to a London scientific meeting 154 years ago.
It remains one of the great coincidences in scientific history that the one person Wallace should choose to approach to share his ideas on natural selection was the only other scientist who separately had come to the same conclusions - Charles Darwin.
via www.bbc.co.uk
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