If your upcoming vacation happens to be near the Smithsonian, the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art or a handful of other top museums, you are in for a treat at their world-famous gem and mineral collections. But there are plenty of ways to see fantastic gem and mineral specimens outside of the most well-known venues. Here are a few ideas for you and the family:
- View a university’s gem and mineral collection.
Many American universities are home to extensive gem and mineral collections. Harvard’s Mineralogical and Geological Museum inside its Natural History Museum houses more than 150,000 mineral samples and more than 3,000 mineral, rock, gem and meteorite specimens. Highlights include zircon crystals more than 4.3 billion years old and a 1,600-pound amethyst geode.
Similarly, the Yale Peabody Museum features the oldest collection of meteorites in the United States, as well as 60,000 mineral samples and an interactive 360-degree experience of 82 of its gems and minerals.
Though much smaller, the University of Arizona re-opened its Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum in 2022, with 2,200 samples, after renovations. Its mineral evolution gallery walks visitors through how the Earth’s roughly 60 original minerals evolved into the approximately 5,600 minerals that we know today. The museum’s treasury is home to the117-carat Lion of Merelani, the largest gemstone of its kind to be cut in the United States.
- Journey to Moscow’s Fersman Mineralogical Museum on Instagram.
Most of us aren’t visiting Russia in the current geopolitical climate, but the country’s capital hosts one of only a few pure mineral museums worldwide, meaning its exhibits are focused solely and entirely around gems, minerals and meteorites. Its five collections include more than 90,000 items representing 2,400 mineral specimens that are systematically organized, 4,800 crystals, 8,000 pieces of gem and stone art and 45 registered meteorites. Several times per week, the museum’s Instagram page showcases highlights from its exhibits, so you can get a glimpse inside the museum’s halls from the comfort of your home.
- Visit the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art Outside Chicago.
If your interests include art and minerals and gems, lapidary art exhibits can provide a taste of both. Lapidary art is a medium that involves cutting and polishing stones and is rooted in the times of early civilizations, when ancient peoples carved stones for jewelry. It became a popular hobby in the 1950s. This museum’s collections include Florentine and Roman mosaics; jade carvings by the museum’s namesake; agate cameos carved in Idar-Oberstein, Germany in the 20th century; 20 dioramas showcasing miniature wildlife; organic gems, gemstones, rocks, minerals and fossils; and even an 18-carat gold castle carved on a large slab of Brazilian agate. Collections can be seen virtually on the museum’s website.
- Try a museum with a kid-friendly component.
Many of the most-renowned mineral and gem museums will also have areas for the kids or grandkids, but the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas is known specifically for its advocacy for science education for kids as well as its Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals Hall. The gallery was built around its Grape Jelly Amethyst Geode and features specimens from six of the seven continents. Highlights include The Eyes of Africa, a two-foot-tall quartz and fluoride specimen from Namibia, and the Dragon’s Lair and Ausrox Nugget, two large gold pieces weighing in at 63 and 51.29 pounds, respectively.
When you’re done enjoying the gems and minerals on display, bring the kids to the Tom Hunt Energy Hall. They can experience what it’s like to turn the valves on a well head and see how 3-D technology can map likely underground energy deposits (right up your geoscience alley!). If fossils are their fancy, they can marvel at the researchers inside the museum’s Paleo Lab located in the T. Boone Pickens Life Then and Now Hall. These real-life scientists are working under the only full-body reconstruction of Nanuqsaurus hoglundi in the world.