[Rockhounds] The Vaux collection at the Academy of Science in Phily

[Alan Goldstein]

We had numerous discussions about museums over the years. I am going to try 
to minimize rehashing old lines. However a few comments are in order.

The Academy was created as a place to promote the advancement of science - 
not a museum! Collections of natural history objects were an extension of 
their library.

Great mineral museum exhibits are an endangered species. I have not visited 
a large number over the years - American Museum and Smithsonian are the only 
large museums where I remember good exhibits. (The Field Museum's was 
sub-par.) Colburn, Weinman, Fallbrook, American Fluorite, and Clement 
Mineral Museums are small but have high-quality exhibits. The latter two are 
struggling to stay open.

Our local museum (now science center) has a few minerals on exhibit. Their 
largest display is atypical gemstones - someone donated the collection just 
before the new exhibit gallery opened. Not atypical for this group, but for 
the general public. A few people have been trying to create a natural 
history museum for the state of Kentucky for more than 20 years. Guess what? 
No interest in funding it! (We get a privately funded creation museum 
instead!)
I'm going to try to create a temporary exhibit at our park's Interpretive 
Center on Gerard Troost with mineral specimens from the collection to trace 
his life. With their collections staff laid off, it might be later rather 
than sooner.

Museums live and die by grants - museum admissions don't cover costs. A 
recent study found that a typical American museum would have to charge $32 
per visitor to cover operating expenses. Would you pay that much to visit a 
typical museum?

Like it or not, museums cannot be managed as they did 100 years ago. There 
are not enough mineral enthusiasts to draw in the crowds. Can someone create 
a blockbuster exhibit thematically relating to minerals that doesn't involve 
cut stones or ancient gold treasure? I doubt it. If I borrowed that huge 
stibnite specimen recently given to the American Museum or put a cast of a 
T. rex at our Interpretive Center, guess which specimen would bring in more 
people?

Good luck leaving a collection at museum. But that is a topic for another 
day!

Alan


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DonH" <donhalterman at verizon.net>
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] The Vaux collection at the Academy of Science in 
Phily


> Jim Daly wrote:
>
>> There's the crux of the matter. The Academy should never have accepted a 
>> bequest with such a restrictive stipulation.
>
>
> Such things were common in older days, when museums were building their 
> holdings and also when they considered themselves repositories of 
> knowledge rather than centers of entertainment and make-believe Jurassic 
> park dinosaurs.  The idea of something being "in perpetuity," of being 
> enduring for generations, was a noble one.  In response to what Tim J. 
> said as well, it is the museum's job to use their trust fund to fulfill 
> their obligations.  The geology collection was a centerpiece of their 
> collection, something seen by thousands of school children every year on 
> class trips and by thousands of walk-in visitors.  Along the way someone 
> lost sight of the purpose and value of that collection.  Yet they still 
> have hall upon hall of stuffed animals in dioramas--in my view, could 
> anything be more outdated and space-consuming?
>
> As I wrote to someone off-list, minerals and geology will become very 
> important in the next few decades as emerging economies compete for scarce 
> resources and mining in the U.S. becomes cool again.  If Sierra Club 
> members want to continue driving their SUVs and once people realize that 
> producing ethanol consumes more fossil fuel than it saves, we need to 
> explore for resources right here.  That goes for metals as well as oil. 
> Nowadays, most kids get their knowledge of geology from the Discovery 
> Channel--we call them the "Discovery Channel generation"--and the bulk of 
> them want to be seismologists or volcanologists when they start.  When I 
> talk about mining and minerals, they look at me like I'm from another 
> planet and wonder what that has to do with geology!  Maybe if they had 
> access to a museum with well-planned displays they would understand.
>
>
> Don
>
>
> -- 
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