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CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE -- Otto and Isa Degener records

 Collection
Identifier: RG-04-07

Scope and Contents

CONTENT WARNING: The Fritz Kuhle file includes government seals with swastikas, as well as references to racial purity and imprisonment in Berlin during World War II. Additionally, other parts of the collection – particularly Series 1 – contain outdated and derogatory language used to describe Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Dates

  • 1899 - 2000
  • Majority of material found within 1940 - 1987

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research by appointment.

Conditions Governing Use

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be submitted in writing to the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden.

Biographical / Historical

Otto Degener (1899–1988) was a systematic botanist and conservationist best known as a leading authority on the flora of the Hawaiian Islands. He earned his M.S. from the University of Hawaii in 1923 and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he studied under Nathaniel Lord Britton, Per Axel Rydberg, and Robert Almer Harper. Moving to Hawaii in 1922, he taught botany at the University of Hawaii from 1925 to 1927, and in 1929 was appointed the first naturalist for Hawaii National Park. He was appointed Collaborator in Hawaiian Botany by the NYBG in 1935 and was associated with the NYBG until his death.

Irmgard (Isa) Hansen (1924-2018) was a taxonomic botanist who specialized in agrostology and pharmacognosy. She began her career as a botanical assistant at the Berlin Botanical Garden and earned her doctorate in 1949 at the University of Berlin under Dr. Hermann Sleumer. To finance her education, she worked as a lecturer and research assistant to Drs. Robert Pilger and Hermann Sleumer at Humboldt University. After completing her studies, she worked at the Freie Universität Berlin, where she taught pharmacognosy to pharmacy and medical students.

On a trip to Berlin in 1952 seeking to consult a grass specialist, Dr. Otto Degener met Dr. Isa Hansen, and the two began a correspondence that led to their marriage in January 1953. Together they traveled the world, collected specimens, and studied the flora of the Hawaiian Islands, which resulted in 10 books and over 400 journal articles, including later volumes of the New Illustrated Flora of the Hawaiian Islands (Flora Hawaiiensis) – the first comprehensive flora of Hawaii since William Hillebrand’s 1888 publication.

Over the course of their careers, the Degeners collected more than 36,000 different plant species and preserved some 900 threatened and endangered plants. Otto Degener was awarded the Linnaeus Medal by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1962 and the Willdenow Medal from the Berlin Botanic Garden in 1979. Isa Degener was named an Honorary Collaborator of Hawaiian Botany at NYBG in 1975. In 1979, both Degeners received NYBG’s Distinguished Service Award and were jointly honored by the Senate of the State of Hawaii for their conservation efforts.

Otto Degener died on January 16, 1988, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Isa Degener passed away thirty years later, in 2018, in Waipahu, Hawaii.

Extent

14.8 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

German

Arrangement

The collection is organized into six series:

  • Series 1: Correspondence, 1919-1992, bulk: 1960-1987
  • Series 2: Subject Files, 1917-1991, bulk: 1960-1987
  • Series 3: Research Papers, 1923-1988, bulk: 1940-1986
  • Series 4: Personal Papers, 1899-2000, bulk: 1944-1988
  • Series 5: Topping File Card Index, undated
  • Series 6: Lantern Slides, 1946

Other Finding Aids

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Otto and Isa Degener records were transferred to the New York Botanical Garden archives in ten separate accessions, occurring in 1979, 1980, 1986, 2010, 2021, and 2025.

Related Materials

NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN:

ART--The Otto Degener Artwork Collection #18

EXSICCATA--Student collection assembled for reference use by Dr. Otto Degener in recognizing some of the genera of Hawaiian Limu

HUNT INSTITUTE FOR BOTANICAL DOCUMENTATION:

The Otto Degener Collection

Title
Otto and Isa Degener records
Status
Completed
Author
Stephen Sinon in 1999 with further revisions by Nicole Font in 2025.
Date
December 1999
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Sponsor
Originally processed by Stephen Sinon, Assistant Archivist, December 1999. Converted to EAD in October 2006 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH-PA 50678-04). Reprocessed by Nicole Font, Shelby White and Leon Levy Processing Archivist, in July 2025 with funding from the Leon Levy Foundation.

Revision Statements

  • October 2006: Converted to EAD by Kathleene Konkle.
  • July 2025: Reprocessed by Nicole Font

Repository Details

Part of the The Archives of the New York Botanical Garden Repository

Contact:
New York Botanical Garden, Mertz Library
2900 Southern Boulevard
Bronx NY 10458 United States