While bullets and cannonballs were flying back and forth across the Mason Dixon line in 1862, Alfred Russel Wallace was wrapping up eight years of adventure studying and collecting biological specimens in Southeast Asia. During that time, he gathered over 125,000 specimens, becoming very familiar with an area he called the Malay Archipelago — a chain of more than 25,000 islands between Southeast Asia and Australia, which includes modern-day countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore.

Wallace was an incredible scientist and explorer during a time when interest in the natural world was extremely high. On one occasion, while heading back to England from South America, the sailing ship caught fire, forcing all into lifeboats. He lost all his notes

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