'I am Ali Wallace': The Malay assistant of Alfred Russel Wallace

Abstract

The famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace collected natural history specimens throughout Southeast Asia from 1854-1862. One of the least known of the players in Wallace's story is his Malay assistant Ali, from Sarawak. This article combines the surviving evidence to bring Ali and his role in the expedition out of the shadows. Several corrections to traditional accounts are emphasized; these include the fact that Ali was not always a collecting assistant, but at first a cook; Ali did not travel with Wallace for the rest of his voyage, but left him for an entire year; and Ali may have collected the majority of Wallace's bird specimens. In addition, Ali's wages and itinerary are reconstructed for the first time. It is concluded that Ali made a major contribution to Wallace's scientific understanding of the Malay archipelago, not just with new ornithological discoveries like Wallace's Standard Wing (Semioptera wallacii), but by his contributions of knowledge.