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‘I am Ali Wallace‘: The Malay Assistant of Alfred Russel Wallace

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

‘I am Ali Wallace‘: The Malay Assistant of Alfred Russel Wallace

John van Wyhe and Gerrell M. Drawhorn (2015) reconstruct the life and contributions of Ali, the Malay assistant who accompanied Alfred Russel Wallace through the Malay Archipelago from 1855 to 1862, drawing on Wallace’s journals, notebooks, letters, and publications to correct several persistent misconceptions about his role. Set against the backdrop of Wallace’s eight-year collecting expedition that yielded 125,660 specimens, the article argues that Ali was far more than a passive servant: he was a skilled hunter, a knowledgeable informant, and the discoverer of at least one major new species, yet his contributions have been systematically undercredited in the historiography of Wallace’s voyage.

Summary

The article traces Ali’s career from his first appearance in Wallace’s records in December 1855 at Sarawak, where he was engaged as a personal servant and cook, through his gradual transformation into Wallace’s chief collecting assistant. Contrary to the common assumption that Ali was a collector from the outset, the evidence shows he only began shooting and skinning birds in Lombok in mid-1856, and did not become Wallace’s “head man” until the Aru Islands expedition of 1857. His most celebrated achievement was the discovery of Wallace’s Standard Wing (Semioptera wallacii) on the island of Batchian in October 1858, a new genus of Bird of Paradise that Wallace initially considered keeping secret before writing excitedly to his London agent Samuel Stevens (pp. 14–15).

A significant correction offered by the authors concerns the period between May 1859 and May 1861, when Ali was absent from Wallace’s company for approximately a year. Wallace’s letter to Stevens of 26 November 1859 reveals that Ali had married in Ternate and that “his wife would not let him go” (p. 16). This gap has been overlooked by most commentators, who have assumed Ali accompanied Wallace continuously. The authors reconstruct how Ali reappeared with Wallace at Bouru in May 1861, likely through written communication relayed via a European resident in Ternate, possibly Johann Alexander Jungmichel (pp. 17–18).

The article also reconstructs Ali’s wages for the first time, estimating them at approximately f.9 per month (equivalent to 5 Singapore dollars or 13s. 4d.), comparable to the lowest ranks of the Singapore Police and native military corps (pp. 24–25). His total earnings over the voyage are estimated at roughly f.450 or £45. The authors further calculate that Ali probably collected the majority of Wallace’s 8,050 bird specimens — approximately 5,150 after subtracting an estimated 2,900 collected by Charles Allen and his team (p. 24).

Key Findings

  • Ali was not a collecting assistant from the start but began as a cook and personal servant in Sarawak (December 1855), only taking up bird-shooting and skinning in Lombok (June 1856) and becoming Wallace’s “head man” by the Aru Islands expedition (January 1857) (pp. 4–7).
  • Ali discovered Wallace’s Standard Wing (Semioptera wallacii) on Batchian on 24 October 1858, a new genus of Bird of Paradise that Wallace described as “a great prize” and a “completely new form” (pp. 14–15).
  • Ali was absent from Wallace’s company for approximately one year (May 1859 – May 1861) due to his marriage in Ternate, a fact contradicted by Wallace’s own later autobiographical claim that Ali accompanied him “through all my travels” (pp. 16–18).
  • Ali’s wages are estimated at f.9 per month (c. 5 Singapore dollars), placing him at the lowest tier of colonial labour; his total earnings over the voyage are conjectured at approximately f.450 or £45 (pp. 24–25).
  • Ali is estimated to have collected roughly 5,150 of Wallace’s 8,050 bird specimens, making him the expedition’s principal ornithological collector (p. 24).
  • Ali was last recorded in 1907 by the American zoologist Thomas Barbour in Ternate, where he identified himself as “Ali Wallace”; the only known photograph of him survives in the Natural History Museum, London (WP/6/8/19) (pp. 26–27).

Conclusion

Van Wyhe and Drawhorn conclude that Ali made a major contribution to Wallace’s scientific understanding of the Malay Archipelago, not only through new ornithological discoveries but through his contributions of local ecological knowledge — information about bird behaviour, distribution, and the routes by which specimens moved from interior villages to the coast. The article positions Ali as a case study in the erasure of indigenous and colonial labour from the history of science, demonstrating how the conventions of attribution in Victorian natural history rendered the work of assistants invisible even when, as with the Standard Wing, it constituted the basis of a landmark discovery.

Context

  • The article draws extensively on the Wallace Collection at the Natural History Museum, London (journals, notebooks, letters, and the photograph WP/6/8/19), as well as the Linnean Society of London manuscripts (MS178a–c) and the Harvard University Archives (Barbour correspondence).
  • The piece contributes to the broader MBRAS project of recovering the histories of non-European participants in colonial science, building on the authors’ earlier work on Charles Allen and the Wallace expedition’s financial records.

References