carved in stone

“Without minerals there is no life. Life learned how to make minerals, in teeth, bones and shells. People think these are separate, [i]t’s all part of a whole.” Dr. George Harlow, geologist and seasoned curator.

On a recent trip to New York City, we visited the newly refurbished Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History.

early cave petroglyphs

The dazzling displays include meteorites, fossils, minerals, gemstones - rough and cut, new and old. All spectacularly displayed so each can shine in their own awesome spotlight.

The mission statement of the museum is: "To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

The newly reopened gems & minerals exhibit

Nowhere does this strike closest as in these immersive halls and exhibits that take us back in time to the origins of Planet Earth and the human race. There are over 5,000 minerals on earth and in the surrounding space around us, forming the substance of the world we evolved in and are made up of.

They tell ancient tales of continents colliding, mountain ranges rising and being worn down, ocean basins folding and crumbling, Hadean chambers breeding crystals from gas and fluids. Some of these minerals are almost as old as time itself. In theory, the nano-diamonds in stardust could have been formed in supernova explosions that occurred only a couple of hundred million years after the Big Bang. 

Thoroughly redesigned and reinstalled, the 11,000-square-foot halls feature 5,000 specimens from 95 countries that tell the fascinating stories of how mineral diversity arose, the environments in which minerals form, how scientists classify them, and how humans have used them throughout history for personal adornment, tools, and technology.

Exhibits feature new specimens and familiar treasures—including two amethyst geodes which, at 12 and 9 feet tall, are among the world’s largest on public display, a 3,000-pound block of iridescent green and blue labradorite, the legendary 563-carat Star of India sapphire, and the 632-carat Patricia Emerald.

In a recent New York Times Article, Dennis Overbye extolls the wonders of this exhibit in "Why Geology Is Our Destiny." These minerals reveal how the cosmos works in our world - eventually all life returns to minerals in the form of fossils and petrified wood.