Curating the collections of Jose Cuatrecasas Arumi 
(1903-1996) 
By Vicki A. Funk 
A new project spearheaded by Vicki 
Funk has begun to make available in 
herbaria and through hard copy publica- 
tion (and eventually documents on the 
web), the specimens, photographs and 
notebooks of Jose Cuatrecasas A. The 
goal of this specific sub-project is to 
curate 75 percent of the remaining 
specimens of the Cuatrecasas collections 
and to complete work on organizing the 
photographic slides. Cuatrecasas, a 
prolific collector and world renowned 
scientist, died in 1996 and although some 
progress has been made, three-fourths of 
his material remains to be processed. 
Many of the collections and slides of 
Cuatrecasas are central to ongoing 
research projects in Colombia and are 
greatly needed by researchers. Because of 
funding constraints this project must be 
done in stages. 
The career of Cuatrecasas extends 
from his birth, 19 March 1903, in Cam- 
podron (Gerona), Spain, through his 
studies in Barcelona and Madrid (1924- 
1931), graduate work in Berlin (1930-31) 
where he knew Adolph Engler, time at the 
Jardin Botanico de Madrid (1933- 39), 
the years in Colombia (1939-47) and in 
Chicago (1947-1955) to his years in 
Washington at the Smithsonian Institution 
(1955-1996). In 1939 he was on a trip to 
South America and if he had not been 
warned about the Spanish Civil War, 
before returning to Spain, his botanical 
career might have ended almost 60 years 
earlier. Cuatrecasas never returned to 
Spain until after the death of dictator 
Francisco Franco. Since the death of 
Cuatrecasas, the Herbario Nacional Co- 
lombiano (COL) in Bogota, located at the 
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, has 
been named in his honor, and the library 
from his home has been reconstructed 
and is on display at the Institut Botanic de 
Barcelona (BC) in Spain. 
Cuatrecasas' first publication was in 
1924 and his last one is still in press. 
Over the years he published 265 papers 
most of them single authored. For 73 
years he published something nearly 
every year, missing only 1939, 1974, and 
1983; an incredible accomplishment. He 
was an author or coauthor of two sub- 
tribes and many genera of the Composi- 
tae. A quick check of Index Kewensis 
gives a list of 2,391 records with Cuatre- 
casas in the author field of which an 
astounding 1,307 are Compositae 
records. Few taxonomists can work in the 
family Compositae without making use of 
his work. At the time of the 1985 
festschrift in his honor, Cuatrecasas was 
listed with B.L. Robinson, S.F Blake, A.L. 
Cabrera, and H. Merxmuller, as individu- 
als who had made truly constructive and 
insightful contributions to the study of 
the Compositae in the first three quarters 
of this century. 
Cuatrecasas collected extensively and 
in areas that were difficult to reach. Over 
the years many new taxa have been 
Jose Cuatrecasas (in Spain in 1923 , left, and at the Smithsonian in the 1970s). 
described based on his collections and 
many have been named after him, includ- 
ing eight genera in five families 
(Cuatresia A.T Hunziker, Solanaceae; 
Cuatrecasea Dugand, Palmae; Cuatreca- 
sasiella H. Robinson, Cuatrecasanthus 
H. Robinson, Joseanthus H. Robinson, 
and Neocuatrecasia R.M King & H. 
Robinson, all in the Asteraceae; Cuatre- 
casasiodendron Standley & Steyermark, 
Rubiaceae; and Quadricasaea Woodson, 
Apocynaceae). A list of species honoring 
Cuatrecasas shows species in mosses, 
liverworts, ferns, and in 37 plant families. 
Tributes of this type will inevitably 
continue as the many collections by 
Cuatrecasas continue to be processed by 
the US National Herbarium and sent for 
study to specialists around the world. In 
addition, Cuatrecasas was an excellent 
photographer and his research files 
contain numerous photographs, (many on 
large format negatives that were printed 
on glass plates) dating from his field work 
in Colombia in the 1930s and 40s. Many 
of the Cuatrecasas photographs are 
priceless because they are from high 
elevation areas that have since been 
destroyed. 
In August we were successful in 
obtaining funds for the first part of the 
project. The Collections Improvement 
committee headed by Carol Butler 
provided a grant to hire a researcher for 
four months to work on the photographs 
and Compositae specimens. The Depart- 
ment of Botany also provided supplemen- 
tal funding from the Cuatrecasas Fund. 
Finding the right person to do the job 
might have been difficult but the Director 
of the National Museum of Natural 
History, Cristian Samper, came to the 
rescue and identified Mauricio Diazgrana- 
dos C, Director Herbario, Investigador 
UNESIS, Departamento de Biologfa, 
Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universi- 
dad Javeriana, Bogota DC, Colombia. 
Diazgranados turned out to be perfect: he 
is fluent in both Spanish and English, he 
knows Colombia and he is an expert in the 
Compositae. He arrived in October and 
has worked hard to complete much of the 
goals of the sub-project. Linda Hollen- 
berg, Carol Kelloff, Marjorie 
Knowles, and Harold Robinson have 
Continued on page 10 
Cuatrecasas 
Continued from page 9 
also helped with the project 
As one might expect the work was 
more difficult and more interesting than 
we had anticipated. During the first phase 
of the project, Diazgranados worked on 
organizing the photographic archives. 
Photography was a passion of Cuatrecasas 
and during his life he took over 20,000 
pictures, about 12,000 of which are here 
at the museum (the others are missing). 
These photographs, many taken in remote 
areas, have enormous potential for 
science and social commentary. In 
addition to taking photographs Cuatre- 
casas kept detailed notes as to where they 
were taken and who or what was in them. 
The photographic material housed at the 
museum has been placed in archival 
sleeves and notebooks. The journals have 
been copied onto archival paper and an 
overview of what is housed here at the 
museum has been prepared. Other funds 
were used to scan about 400 slides and we 
are exploring various ways to use them. 
Plans are also underway for other 
research projects. Additional slides and 
photographs have been found and are 
being incorporated into the folders. This 
phase is more or less finished. Several 
thousands of the large format negatives 
will eventually be scanned for digital 
accessibility. 
During Phase 2, Diazgranados has 
been working on the specimens. During 
his life Cuatrecasas collected over 
40,000 plants and he received thousands 
more as gifts for determination. Diaz- 
granados is trying to reduce the backlog 
of unprocessed material by identifying 
material and checking it against our 
current holdings. So far he has curated all 
unfiled specimens of the Espeletiinae 
(the group of particular interest to 
Cuatrecasas). In addition he has rounded 
up and processed nearly 1,200 unmounted 
specimens that were Compositae but not 
Espeletiinae. During this processing of 
material he found many mistakes as well 
as plants without labels or otherwise 
disorganized and he was able to straighten 
out most of these. The duplicates were 
segregated into groups to be sent to 
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 
Bernardino Rivadavia (Buenos Aires), 
Real Jardin Botanico (Madrid), Field 
Museum of Natural History (Chicago), 
New York Botanical Garden, Universidad 
de Los Andes (Merida, Venezuela), 
Universidad Nacional de Colombia 
(Bogota), and other herbaria, according a 
previous established flowchart. This 
activity is not finished yet but will be 
completed soon. 
Diazgranados has only a few days of 
work left but he departs with the goals of 
his sub-project completed. And there is 
more good news, Diazgranados is 
applying to graduate schools in the USA 
and he hopes to study the one genus, 
Espeletiopsis (Espeletiinae), that 
Cuatrecasas did not cover in his mono- 
graph. All in all it has been a pleasure 
working with Diazgranados and we hope 
he will be able to come back soon and 
continue to work on this most interesting 
group of plants. 
Visitors 
Continued from page 2 
Mauricio Diazgranados C. in the US National Herbarium (photo by Marjorie 
Knowles) 
Guido Mathieu, Ghent University, 
Belguim; Peperomia (11/3-11/17). 
Tara Massad, World Wildlife Fund; re- 
strictive range plant families (11/8-12/ 
Teresa Woods, Kansas State University; 
Lespedeza (Fabaceae) (11/15; 11/18). 
Yolanda Herrera-Arrieta, Instituto 
Politecnico Nacional, Durango, Mexico; 
Muhlenbergia (Poaceae) (11/20-12/18). 
Melissa Luckow, Cornell University; 
Leguminosae (11/21-11/26). 
Gale Robertson, Independent re- 
searcher; volunteer interview (11/21). 
Jamie Whitacre, Independent re- 
searcher; contractor interview (11/30). 
Curry Keide, Maryland Department of 
Natural Resources; seagrasses (12/1). 
Cindy Skema, Cornell University; 
Dombeya (Sterculiaceae) (12/12-12/16). 
Steve Popovich, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture - Arapaho and 
Roosevelt National Forests, Fort Collins, 
Colorado; grass identification (12/13). 
Michael Nee, New York Botanical 
Garden; Solanaceae (12/20-12/22). 
Andrew Henderson, New York Botanical 
Garden; Arecaceae (12/27).