Guide to the William Conklin Cusick Papers 1906-1924
Cage 316

Summary Information

Repository
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries
Creator
Cusick, William Conklin
Title
William Conklin Cusick Papers
ID
Cage 316
Date [inclusive]
1906-1924
Extent
24.0 items.
General Physical Description note
.5 linear feet of shelf space.
Language
English
Abstract
Drafts of botanical surveys, ca. 1900-1910; field books and catalogs of botanical collections in the Wallowa and Blue Mountains area of Oregon; correspondence with C.V. Piper; and a biographical sketch of Cusick by W.W. Eggleston.

Preferred Citation note

[Item Description]. Cage 316, William Conklin Cusick Papers. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Biographical/Historical note

William C. Cusick was born in Illinois in 1842 and emigrated to Oregon while a youth. He had a modest "collegiate" education and worked as a teacher for a time. Most of his adult life he spent as a rancher in the area of the Wallowa Mountains. He began botanical collecting and distribution sometime in the 1870s, encouraged by Harvard’s Asa Gray. Most of his plants came from the area of the Wallowa and Blue Mountains and were arranged in two successive herbariums, one of which he transferred to the University of Oregon, while the second went to Washington State University.

Encouraged by C. V. Piper, Cusick’s second herbarium project included extensive and exhaustive botanical surveys of the area in the two mountain ranges. Unlike his earlier efforts, this second phase did not include large distributions of plants. Cusick died in 1922.

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Scope and Contents note

Cusick’s extant papers consist primarily of his field books, which doubled as the catalog for the second herbarium, and the draft list of the floral surveys he conducted about 1910. A few surviving items of correspondence are included.

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Arrangement note

The Cusick papers are arranged to content, with the meager extant correspondence segregated. The field books follow Cusick’s numbering system.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries © 1976

http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/masc
Terrell Library
P.O. Box 645610
Pullman, WA, 99164-5610
509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu

Conditions Governing Access note

This collection is open for research use.

Custodial History note

The papers of William C. Cusick, 1842-1922, of Union County, Oregon, were acquired by the Washington State University Herbarium about 1921, along with Cusick’s Second Herbarium

Immediate Source of Acquisition note

The materials in this collection of botanical documents were transferred to the Washington State University Library in 1975 from the university’s Ownbey Herbarium.

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Related Materials

Related Archival Materials note

Additional Botanical manuscripts in MASC may be found in the following collections:

Cage 318 Beattie, Rolla Kent Papers, 1899-1956

Cage 53 Botanical papers, 1881-1973

Cage 317 Piper, Charles Vancouver Papers, 1888-1926

Cage 319 St. John, Harold Papers, 1912-1957

Cage 315 Suksdorf, Wilhelm Nicolaus Papers, 1867-1935

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Controlled Access Headings

Occupation(s)

  • Botanists--Oregon -- Correspondence

Personal Name(s)

  • Cusick, William Conklin, 1842-1924 --Archives
  • Eggleston, W. W. (Willard Webster), b. 1863
  • Piper, Charles V. (Charles Vancouver), 1867-1926

Subject(s)

  • Botany -- Research--Oregon
  • Science
  • Washington (State)

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General note

William Conklin Cusick

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Bibliography

Cusick’s life and botanical experiences are discussed in Irwin F. Lange, Pioneer Botanists of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon Historical Quarterly, 57 (1956) 115-118 and Harold St. John,  William Conklin Cusick, Rhodora, 25 (1923) 101-105.

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Collection Inventory

Folder

Correspondence, letters from C. V. Piper 1914-1921   3.0 items.

 1

Biographical Sketch of Cusick by Willard W. Eggleston 1924   1.0 item.

 2

A Catalogue of Grasses of Eastern Oregon 1908   1.0 item.

 3

A List, From Memory, of the Plants to be Seen Near at Hand in Crossing the Canyon of the Immaha Near its Source 1911   3.0 items.

 4

An Annotated List of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Northeastern Oregon: Wallawa, Union, Baker and Umatilla Counties 1909   2.0 items.

 5

Distribution of Characteristic Alpine and Hudsonian Plants of the Wallowa Mountains undated   2.0 items.

 6

Distribution of Characteristic Alpine and Hudsonian Plants of the Wallowa Mountains undated   2.0 items.

 7

Field Books/Catalogs 1906-1916 
Folder

Specimen Number 2739-2783 

 7

Specimen Number 3060-3145 

 8

Specimen Number 3150-3339 

 9

Specimen Number 3340-3420 

 10

Specimen Number 1(3509) - 51 (3560) 

 11

Specimen Number 3422-3709 

 12

Specimen Number 3710-4038 

 13

Specimen Number 4039-4241 

 14

Specimen Number 4242-4435 

 15

Specimen Number 4436-4522 

 16

Specimen Number 4546-4783 

 17

Specimen Number 4604-4883 

 18

Specimen Number 4884-4935 

 19

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