AN exhibition featuring the ground-breaking work of a remarkable Welshman has gone on display at Oriel y Parc in St Davids.

Wallace: The Forgotten Evolutionist? will focus on the forgotten figure of Alfred Russel Wallace, who discovered the process of evolution by natural selection alongside Charles Darwin.

Wallace was many things; an intrepid explorer, a brilliant naturalist, a social activist and political commentator, who died in 1913 at the age of 90.

A collection of natural history specimens from National Museum Wales - including bugs, butterflies, birds and more – will highlight Wallace’s extraordinary work.

To complement the exhibition, there will be a new display of work by Graham Sutherland, showing how the natural history and geology of Pembrokeshire was such an important influence on his work from the 1930s onwards.

Born in Llanbadoc near Usk in 1823 and educated in Hertford, Wallace returned to Wales in 1845 and spent a number of years in the Neath area as an architect and surveyor. It was during this period his passion for natural history really developed.

Wallace embarked on a great adventure, travelling to Brazil to explore the Amazon and collect specimens. His intention was to sell some of the insect and animal specimens to collectors back in the UK, but disaster struck when the ship he was on sank, taking with it the majority of his collection.

Back in London, Wallace penned a number of academic papers and books which allowed him to return to his travels. From 1854 to 1862 he travelled through the Malay Archipelago, a trip that was to significantly drive and further shape his thinking, not only on evolutionary theory, but about the geographical distribution of animals now known as biogeography.

In 1858 he sent an article outlining his ideas on evolution to Darwin, which ultimately led to the joint presentation of both their papers to the Linnean Society and the birth of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Wallace: The Forgotten Evolutionist? will be on display at Oriel y Parc until November 25.