[Rockhounds] Disposing of collections

Thu Jan 15 17:47:51 PST 2009

Over the years I've picked up a few collections while working in the museum 
field. The Tharp collection ( obtained in the late 1980's) was not in 
immediate danger of being tossed, but was certainly unwanted. The small 
shotgun-type house (in a part of town I wouldn't want to visit after dark) 
had so many specimens in cabinets that floor jacks were used to keep them 
level. The rock & mineral collection came with 7 catalogues, lots of 
correspondence, old magazines, dealer catalogs, etc. dating back to the 
1870's! It is in the Louisville Science Center collections.

More recently I was called to salvage a collection in a dilapidated garage, 
condemned for demolition by the city. The collection was in about 50 WWII 
vintage army foot lockers, many rotted away. It was a disaster having been 
in the garage since at least the early 1960's when the collector passed 
away. It took two trips with a full-size pick up truck to bring it to the 
park. The bulk of the collection was given to teachers. Almost nothing was 
labeled. Over two years, I had two teacher workshops where a total of 48 
teachers each took 100 specimens for their classroom use. (The workshop was 
called "Building A Classroom Geology Museum" or something to that effect.

Finally, I had a small, nice, 200 pc. mineral collection donated as the 
owners were moving to Florida. Most (but not all) were labeled. As minerals 
are not a priority for the park collections, I'm finding a variety of ways 
to use them creatively.

If everything was boxed, my current inventory of specimens in my cataloged 
collection and trade stock could fill a good-size moving van. I've been 
talking with Carolyn Daniels about the need for an article on making 
arrangements to dispose of your collection so your family won't have to make 
all of the decisions.

Alan G.

P.S. A little off-topic... Lately I've been salvaging material from the 
Ozark-Mahoning dump in Rosiclare, IL for the Falls Fossil Festival. It's 
nice to have access to a dual axis dump truck and know people who will fill 
it with their front end loader. It contains barite, calcite, fluorite and 
sphalerite from the Annabel Lee, Denton and Number 1 mines. It's amazing how 
16 tons gets mined through over the festival weekend! So that material is 
spread among several thousand people now. Actually the pile is visited year 
round, though the best stuff is certainly picked through. I dump is large 
enough to last 100 Fossil Festivals, at least.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <OnyxCollector at aol.com>
To: <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Disposing of collections

>I shudder to think of all the collections thrown away by  uncaring 
>relatives,
> since just by myself I have seen it happen time and time  again. 
> Overhearing
> the grandkids plan on dismantling the 48 inch diamond  saw with a crane 
> and
> tossing it in the alley in Bakersfield....... finding a  pile of saws,
> polishing units, and tumblers sitting in the gutter in  Reseda....... 
> meeting a young
> guy whose neighbors' kids threw away a 40 foot  dumpster of tools and
> crystal/mineral collection in Big Bear (he rescued it  all and made a tidy
> profit)...... getting a late night phone call from someone I  never met 
> asking me to
> please empty a bedroom packed with display cases of  material the next 
> morning
> because they didn't have time to throw it all away  "before the Realtor 
> gets
> here" in Van Nuys.  It's horrible.
>
>
> In a message dated 1/14/2009 11:05:02 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> VevaBailey at aol.com writes:
>
> Hi  all,
> A friend of mine found a large beautiful piece of Lapis in the Carson 
> River
> not far from my home.
> Someone just dumped their collection  back in the river. He found 
> petrified
> wood too.
> I really think  it is a shame that we don't have more "kids" interested in
> our  "hobbies".
> I am always telling my Grandkids, to "bring me ROCKS". If they  look 
> pretty
> or what send Rocks!!
>
> Veva  Bailey
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 1/14/2009 10:41:18 P.M. Pacific  Standard Time,
> tangojuli at yahoo.com writes:
>
> Axel   commented on those who will have to dispose of our collections
> (children  usually, fire dept in other cases) in our wake. Recently  out 
> in
> the desert
> somewhere, friends and I discovered a dump pile in  the middle of nowhere
> onprivate land to be developed soon. Someone  just opened up the tailgate 
> and
>
> pressed eject. We totally enjoyed  it, but it was like an archaeological 
> dig,
> and
> we learned a lot  about the former owner. My friends were thrilled to dig
> thru the  historic bottle collection dating back to the 1890s and found 
> slabs
>
> with cab outlines someone once planned to cut, jade, and other locality
> peices
> my friends recognized with breathless excitement. We found  beautiful 
> geodes
> and hunks of vivid chrysocolla that were dumped  along with the detritus 
> of a
>
> garage--wheel ramps, an old push  sweeper, a 70s bicycle, a broom, old oil
> cans,
> etc. I found a  collection of tabasco bottles, and very old pop bottle
> collection. I  found what turned out to be a nice
> hunk of turquoise. The  1950s  coleman lamp and 1970s olive oil can are 
> now
> part of my historic  junk  collection.
> The tin cooking utensils were mended by someone  practically  minded, but 
> the
> assemblage was a reminder that someday  someone will see much  of our
> uncatelogued boxes and crates of  unlabelled rocks and minerals as junk 
> to
> be disposed
> of (with the  exception of Kreigh :). My fiance has a list of a  couple
> people
> to  call in case of my demise to dispose of my collection.  Hopefully they
> will
> remember where I've been, because I've been lazy in the  last  year or two 
> of
> labelling stuff. (smile)
> And instead of reading  email,  playing with topo maps and planning my 
> next
> trip, maybe I  need to be out  cleaning out my garage which is now a 
> shrine
> to
> collecting....
> ...tina
>
>
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