[Rockhounds] The Vaux collection at the Academy of Science inPhily

[Earl R. Verbeek]

Hi Tim,

I don't disagree with ANYTHING you say below, but wish to add another point
to it.  The dispersal of collections, whether to collectors or other
institutions or a mix of these, can sometimes damage the value of a
collection irreparably.  For scientific collections especially, the value of
a particular specimen may derive in large part from its context -- that is,
when that particular specimen is compared to the other 20 or 30 related
specimens in a drawer.  If you wish to understand Franklin rhodonites I'll
pull out five flats of them and leave you there for an hour, and after that
you'll have a pretty good grasp of that species and know which specimens to
select for further research.  If instead you viewed a pretty collector piece
here, a reference specimen there, and a third specimen some other place and
time, you wouldn't be able to develop that knowledge.  Context means so very
much, and it is lost when a collection is scattered all over the globe.

The nature of a collection has a lot to do with this.  A collection put
together on the basis of visual appeal -- that is, well-crystallized
minerals from worldwide sources -- might as well be dispersed because there
is no central theme to begin with, other than the "eye candy" factor.  A
carefully selected scientific reference collection, however, is damaged a
great deal by dispersal.  Moreover, such collections are full of many
specimens that have more scientific than commercial value, so much of the
content might not only be dispersed but discarded.  Most museum collections
fall somewhere between these two extremes.

That said, one should never sell or donate a collection to an institution
with the expectation that it will remain intact.  In many cases there are
very good reasons it should NOT remain intact, and I'm sure you and other
list members know what they are.  All museums deal with such problems; it's
just that some deal with them more responsibly than others.

         Cheers-   Earl Verbeek

-----Original Message-----
From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
[mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Tim Jokela Jr.
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 3:48 PM
To: Rock Currier; Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem
collectors
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] The Vaux collection at the Academy of Science
inPhily

Well, obviously, all the people that howled about the sale of the collection

will be volunteering to unpack, identify, clean, label, store, display, and 
curate it into infinity.

Any funding required to do the above will of course come from the same 
people.

I'm all for material being conserved in museums, provided the museums have 
the will, the staff, and the funding to properly curate it. If the museums 
are lacking; if they're just mindlessly accumulating, then why shouldn't 
they try to figure out what they're good at, what their purpose is, and get 
the stuff that they're not going to properly curate on the market where the 
specimens will find loving homes.

Cheers,

Tim Jokela Jr., tjokela at execulink.com