UD Mineralogical Museum sets exhibition 'Recent Gifts' in Penny Hall

8:48 a.m., Sept. 3, 2013--The University Museums of the University of Delaware will present the exhibition “Recent Gifts” in the Mineralogical Museum in Penny Hall from Sept. 4-Dec. 8.

The Mineralogical Museum is actively building its collection of minerals by the addition of both historic specimens and newly collected material. Over the past five years, more than 100 new specimens have entered the museum.

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June 5: Blue Hen 5K

University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

• June 6-9: Food and culture series
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• Through Sept. 16: Women of color in academia

This exhibition features recent acquisitions, many of which are on public view for the first time.

Mined in the late 1980s, during the early development of copper mining in China, the velvety green malachite from the Shilu Mine, Guangdong Province, brings to the collection a malachite specimen from a locality not previously represented.

During the 1880s in Bisbee, Ariz., mining also brought to light near surface specimens of malachite and azurite, both highly valued by collectors. The recently gifted azurite from the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee commemorates this historic time.

In the late 1960s, zoisite was discovered in a blue gem variety, named tanzanite, in the Arusha region of Tanzania near Mount Kilimanjaro. The Merelani Mines of the Arusha region have produced thousands of tanzanite crystals and 40 years after that original discovery gem quality green diopside, a mineral that usually forms opaque dark green blocky crystals, were found in the same mine.

A recent gift of one brings to the UD collection an outstanding and a more beautiful specimen of diopside than most have seen.

UD’s regional collection emphasizes Pennsylvania minerals because deposits in Delaware and Maryland are limited. The rich pale blue celestine from the Meckley Quarry in Mandata, Northumberland County, Pa., illustrates a recent find, and the euhedral hexagonal brucite is a specimen collected in the mid 1800s.

Also on view is the permanent collection.

A lecture by Mineralogical Museum Curator Sharon Fitzgerald to be held at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30, will accompany the exhibition. 

For program information, see the University Museums website or call 302-831-8037.