Draft:George Franklin Gaumer

George Franklin Gaumer (1850-1929), was a doctor and naturalist born in Monroe, Indiana in the USA. From there he went to Kansas, where he entered the university in 1868, graduated in 1876, travelled to Cuba in 1878, Yucatán from 1878 to 1881, and the US Southwest from 1882 to 1884, where he was a professor of natural sciences at the University of North Mexico. While in the US Southwest he collected bird specimens for studies.

In 1884 he moved permanently to Mexico's Yucatán state, where he practiced medicine in Izamal, while continuing with his extensive biological collecting for studies. In Yucatán, he worked as a doctor while studyig and collecting plants and animals, often discovering species not yet known to science. Many of his collections were sent to specialists at the British Museum in London, and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He published his own scientific observations in both English and Spanish.

As a Doctor in Yucatan

In Izamal, Gaumer created a chemical and botanical laboratory, which he named The Izamal Chemical Company. Upon Gaumer's death, his two sons continued with the company. An interesting catalog dated 1908, listing the company's services and products, in Spanish, begins by listing fluid extracts of medicinal plants, sold by the company in half-liter bottles by the company.

For example, the first listed item is an extract of Adiantum tricolipis Fee" (sic). Adiantum tricholipis is a species of maidenhair fern occurring throughout much of Mexico, and traditionally is reputed to be medicinal. In Spanish known as cilantrillo, its extracts are swished in the mouth for tooth abscesses and other dental problems, and applied to the skin for "scabs caused by filth," and fungal skin infections.

The Izamal Chemical Company was so appreciated by government officials that it was awarded a silver medal and a special diploma, while Gaumer and his doctor son George received a bronze medal and a diploma.

As a Naturalist

In his post-graduation early days traveling in Cuba, Mexico and the US Southwest, Gaumer focused largely on collecting bird specimens, though also some plants, for Godman and Salvin's Biologia Centrali-Americana (1888). Later, in Mexico's Yucatán, mainly he studied and collected plants, though also many animals. Organisms collected and preserved by Gaumer now are found in institutions around the world, such as the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, Spain's Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, London's Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, St. Louis's Missouri Botanical Garden, Germany's Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum and Free University of Berlin, and Mexico City's Herbario Nacional.

As a Botanist in Mexico's Yucatán State

Nowadays Gaumer mostly is remembered for his botanical collecting in Yucatán. Overall and sometimes helped by his two sons, around 24,000 or his collections were preserved as pressed and dried herbarium specimens. Of these, about 226 have become type collections named as species new to science. As years passed, some of these names have been recognized as synonymous and have dropped out of usage. Nevertheless, researchers have expressed their gratitude to Gaumer by naming about 50 plants after him.. For example, there's the treelike cactus Pilosocereus gaumeri.