Floretta Allen Curtiss

Floretta Allen Curtiss (1 December 1822 – 3 March 1899) was an American phycologist, whose significant collection of algae specimens was ultimately donated to the United States National Herbarium. She has been described as a "trailblazer", and as "Florida's most indefatigable phycologist."

Death and legacy Floretta Allen Curtiss died on 3 March 1899, and was buried at Hillside Memorial Cemetery and Park, Oswego County, New York.

This significant herbarium, known as Algae Curtissianae, was later bound into eight folio volumes by her son and donated to the United States National Herbarium. To accompany the donation, A.H. Curtiss wrote a short biography of his mother, published as Mrs. Floretta A. Curtiss: a biographical sketch by her son (1899). Charles Edwin Bessey wrote that "Science owes her a debt of gratitude for the years of painstaking labor which she gave to the gathering and preservation of specimens, which have enriched the botanical collections of the World's great herbaria."

In 1996, the Phycological Newsletter named Curtiss a 'trailblazer' in the field. Michael J. Wynne wrote:It is appropriate to pay homage to Floretta Allen Curtiss, an adventurous lady who although never publishing a single paper on algae, stands out as a genuine "trailblazer." Her impact on phycology is based on her zeal for collecting and her sharing material with professional phycologists of the day. She was not a mere petticoated wader as was so common in this Victorian period but rather was one sturdy field botanist, who devoted the last two decades of her life to her favorite pursuit, namely, the study of marine algae.