Background
Maarten Dirk was born in Ternate. His father was Dirk Maartens van Duivenbode.
Maarten Dirk was born in Ternate. His father was Dirk Maartens van Duivenbode.
From 1858 to 1861 he provided lodging and assistance to Alfred Russel Wallace when he travelled through the Mollucan islands. The eldest son is called Lodewijk Willem Alexander who became also a trader in naturalia. They had three children.
One of them is Adolphina Susanna Wilhelmina (1844 - 1919 Delft).
In 1867 the Governor of the Dutch Indies granted Maarten Dirk the addition of the name Van Renesse to his family name. Wallace and Van Duivenbode
Wallace travelled from 1854 tot 1862 through the Malay Archipelago.
From January 1858 on, he stayed three years on Ternate in a house owned by Van Duivenbode (spelled as "van Duivenboden") and used this house as base camp for expeditions to other Maluku Islands like Gilolo. Maarten Dirk van Duivenbode was the man Alfred Russel Wallace called "..Mr.
Duivenboden, a native of Ternate, from an ancient Dutch family.." Mr Duivenbode served the Dutch Trade Company (Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij) as a merchant.
He was the owner of many ships, plantations and the whole district of Doalasi. Because of his wealth he was nicknamed the "King of Ternate". According to Wallace he was richer and more important than the real sultan of Ternate.
Wallace also mentioned the sons of Maarten Dirk who accompanied him when visiting Gilolo.
During this period, 9 March 1858 he sent the manuscript Tendency of varieties to depart indefinite from the original type to Charles Darwin who received this document on 18 June 1858 which urged him to finish his famous On the Origin of Species. Darwin considered Wallace"s idea to be identical to his concept of natural selection.
Duivenbode"s legacy
Duivenbode"s bird of paradise
Duivenbode"s riflebird
Duivenbode"s six-wired bird of paradise
Duyvenbode"s lory (Chalcopsitta duivenbodei), also known as the brown lory
and a dragonfly Brachydiplax duivenbodei
They also delivered items to Hermann Schlegel (Leiden), Adolf Bernhard Meyer (Dresden) and other European museums. The Zoological Museum Amsterdam received in 1883 about hundred skins, used for the International Trade Exhibition in Amsterdam.
Wallace, Alfred Russel (1869).
The Malay Archipelago. Harper
Junge, G.C.A. 1953. Ornithologisch onderzoek in de Indische archipel.
Ardea 41:301-336. cited in Chief Justice Heij (2011).
