The Carl Faust Foundation and the Marimurtra Botanical Garden deeply mourn the death of María Elvira i Silleras, archivist, documentalist and lecturer at the University of Barcelona, who was closely linked for many years to the Foundation and to the preservation of Carl Faust’s legacy.
María Elvira carried out essential work, often discreet but indispensable, in the organisation, classification and conservation of the historical archive of the Carl Faust Foundation. Her work brought order, sound judgement and continuity to a documentary collection that is fundamental to gaining a better understanding of the history of Marimurtra, the figure of its founder and the scientific relationships that shaped the early years of the project.
A specialist in archival science and document management, María Elvira was a senior lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Barcelona. Her professional career was linked to the preservation of documentary heritage, personal archives and the transmission of knowledge to new generations of information and documentation professionals.
At Marimurtra, her contribution also culminated in a work of great historical and scientific value: the book she co-authored with Josep Maria Camarasa, From the Sea of Blanes to the Planetary Ocean. Ramon Margalef’s Years of Learning through His Correspondence with Carl Faust (1943–1951). This work brings together, comments on and contextualises the correspondence between Carl Faust and Ramon Margalef, and highlights Faust’s important role in the early career of one of the most prominent Catalan scientists of the 20th century.
Her work in the Foundation’s archive made a decisive contribution to preserving the memory of Carl Faust and making it accessible to researchers, scholars and people interested in the history of science, botany and Marimurtra. Thanks to her dedication, many documents have been preserved, interpreted and recognised as an essential part of the Foundation’s heritage.
The Carl Faust Foundation wishes to express its most sincere gratitude for her dedication, rigour and affection for Marimurtra. Her work forms part of the Garden’s living memory and will continue to be present in every preserved document, every consultation of the archive and every new perspective on the history of Carl Faust.
