NORTHWEST BOTANI CAL MANUSCRIPTS An Indexed Register of the Papers, 1867-1.957, of Wilhelm Nikolaus Suksdorf, William Conklin Cusick, Charles Vancouver Piper, Rolla Kent Beattie, and Harold St. John in the WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Pullman 1976 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 3 Introduction 5 Wilhelm N. Suksdorf Papers 15 William C. Cusick Papers 22 Charles V. Piper Papers 24 R. Kent Beattie Papers 28 Harold St. John Papers 35 Index to the Correspondence 38 Z Washington (State). State University, Pullman. Library. 5358 Northwest botanical manuscripts: an indexed register US of the papers, 1867-1957, of Wilhelm Nikolaus Suksdorf, W3 William Conklin Cusick, Charles Vancouver Piper, Rolla Kent Beattie and Harold St. John in the Washington State Univer­ sity Library. Pullman, Wash., 1976. 64 p. illus. 27 em. 1. Botany--Bibl@ 2. Beattie, Rolla Kent, 1875-1960--Bibl. 3. Cusick, William Conklin, 1842-1922--Bibl. 4. Piper, Charles Vancouver, 1867-1926--Bibl. 5. St. John, Harold, 1895- --Bibl. 6. Suksdorf, Wilhelm Nikolaus, 1850-1932 --Bibl. I. Title" Copyright 1976 by Washington State University All rights are reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical essays or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, Washington State University Library. PREFACE Beginning in 1965, the Washington State University Library has prepared a series of publications designed to make known the character and contents of its major manuscript holdings in a format accessible to scholars throughout the world. The driving force behind these projects over the years has been Dr. Earle Connette, who retired as Chief of the Manuscripts-Archives Division this past June. In a large part then, this publication program serves as a monument to Dr. Connette's vision in making the manuscript program a vital and essential part of the library's services to the research community. In the future, additional guides and registers will continue this publication program. Access to the unique and valuable scholarly resources of the Washington State University Library will thus be continually enhanced,hopefully to the same high standard as that set by Dr. Connette. The present collections, described in this register, make available for the first time documentation of the development of taxonomic botany of the Pacific Northwest. The early explorers of this area, fur traders, military men and missionaries, found innumerable plants unknown to their experience in the east coast of North America or in Europe. However, it was not until serious efforts at local collecting and description were made by men such as Suksdorf, Piper, Cusick, Beattie, and St. John that the relationships of these plants became known to botanists. In nearly every case, these early field and taxonomic botanists were aware of their pioneer efforts and made resolute steps to preserve the efforts of their labors. Through the growth and development of their specimen collections at the Washington State University Herbarium these efforts were preserved for future researchers. Although the records of the third generation of Northwest botanists, as exemplified by F. Marion Ownbey (1910-1974), are not represented in this inventory, his correspondence and papers have also been deposited in the Washington State University Library's manuscript collections. His joining of plant taxonomy to genetic research is as amply documented as the efforts of the field collectors who preceeded him. Since the 1920s, directors of the Washington State University Herbarium have sought to collect and preserve the papers of early North­ west botanists. Dr. Ownbey, for whom the facility was re-named the Marion Ownbey Herbarium in 1975, continued these practices through his tenure, which ran from 1939-1974. If it were not for efforts by him, and his predecessors, documentation of a vital link in the development of Pacific Northwest botany might have been lost forever. The Library wishes to commend the efforts of Dr. Ownbey's successor, Dr. Amy Jean Gilmartin; the herbarium staff, particularly Joy Mastrogiussepe; other members of the botany department, and Mrs. Ruth Ownbey for their efforts in placing these documents in the Manuscripts-Archives Division, where there preservation will be ensured and their use facilitated. The extremely fine work of sorting, arranging, describing, and indexing the 70,000 items in these papers is the result of several months of painstaking work by Lawrence R. Stark and his assistant Robert Catale. The multitude of professional judgments and decisions necessary to make this a valuable and useful research tool of such high quality are but slightly reflected in the finished project. For the scholar, whether involved in botanical or historical studies, this register will provide immediate access to specific research materials. Terry Abraham Manuscripts-Archives Division W. N. Suksdorf ca. 1885 NORTHWEST BOTANICAL MANUSCRIPTS: The Wilhelm Nikolaus Suksdorf, William Conklin Cusick, Charles Vancouver Piper, Rolla Kent Beattie, and Harold St. John Papers, 1867-1957 The papers of five Pacific Northwest botanists were donated to the Washington State University Library in 1975 by the Marion Ownbey Herbarium, on the Washington State University Campus, which had collected the papers between 1921 and 1960. The papers were processed between September 1975 and March 1976 by Lawrence Stark, with the assistance of Robert Catale, Number of Containers 41 Linear Feet of Shelf Space 22 Approximate Number of Items 70,000 THE BOTANICAL STUDY OF WASHINGTON, 1790-1970: A HISTORIC OVERVIEW Prior to the second decade of the twentieth century, the major stress of botanical science in Washington fell upon the branches of the field later known as taxonomy and systematic botany. The extreme variety of vegetation, plus the fact that the area contained so many species not known to Europe or eastern America, naturally led to such an emphasis. Consequently, most early efforts involved botanical reconniassance, naming and classifying of plants, and working the knowledge of these "new" plants into the larger body of botanical knowledge. Codification of the flora of the state and a cycle of revision followed. 1 1Earlier histories of botany in the Northwest may be found in Charles V. Piper, Flora of Washington; Contributions from the United States National Herbarium_, 11 (Washington: GPO, 1906) 10-20, and George B. Rigg, "Notes on the History of Botany in the State of Washington," Washington Historical Quarterly_, 20 (1929) 163-173. Erwin F. Lange, "Pioneer Botanists of the Pacific Northwest," Oregon Historical Quarterly_, 57 (1956) 109-124 is a series of biographies of early resident botanists. Earlier botanical exploration of what is now Washington State generally took place under the auspices of expeditions supported by governments or scientific societies. The first such explorations occurred in the 1790s, as a phase of Vancouver's expedition into Puget Sound. 2 A large number of similar expeditions followed. Many, including the most prominent, David Douglas' explorations of the 1820s, were likewise of European origin. 3 Bit by bit, however, Americans began to assume the task. Again, the bot­ anists operated under the framework of a larger exploratory effort, as in the case of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805-1806, the Wilkes expedi­ tion of 1841, and the Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853. These expedition botanists faced several recurring problems, including lack of time and a tendency to be confined to areas near the few places inhabited by persons of European descent or to areas adjacent to common routes of travel. 4 An even greater problem arose from the fact that the specimens, and the publication of notices of them, tended to be dispersed through European herbaria and European botanical journals. Moreover, the treatment the plants received often followed the Linnean, or sexual, system of classification, even as that approach had reached obsolescence. The 2Archibald Menzies, Vancouver's botanist, was probably the first to collect within the area of the present state, although some collecting may have been done on an earlier Spanish expedition. Naturalists had accompanied exploring expeditions into the Northwest since the Russian expedition of 1741 and the Spanish and British followed the precedent. Many of the type specimens of plants found in Washington, accordingly, were collected on Vancouver Island and perhaps other locations even before Menzies' collecting effort. See C. F. Newcombe, ed., Menzies' Journal of Vancouver's Voyage (Vancouver: Provincial Archives, 1923) xiii-xx. 3Douglas 1 trip was sponsored by a Scottish horticultural society, which was more interested in obtaining decorative plants and "rare" spec­ imens than in scientific botany. Similar strains of horticultural efforts and hobby collecting ran through Washington botany until well into the twentieth century. See Journal Kept by David Douglas During his Travels in North America (London: William Wesley and Son, 1914) and Athelstan George Harvey, Douglas of the Fir: A Biography of David Douglas_, Botanist (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947). 4Such was the case with Douglas and several other collectors aided by the Hudsons' Bay Company. The Americans tended to collect along the routes of travel of their accompanying surveying expeditions. Exceptions