Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems - IMG 0646

Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems - IMG 0636

The Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems is a notable

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...

and

gem A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...

collection within the

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 million ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. Comprising over 1,300 specimens, Hillman Hall has gained a reputation as one of the finest mineral exhibitions in the United States

History

The museum's first

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

exhibit consisted of about 550 specimens loaned by Professor Gustave Guttenberg, then purchased after his death in 1896 to become the core of the museum's collection. In subsequent decades, it was augmented primarily by gifts, including

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...

's 1904 donation of the notable mineral collection of

William W. Jefferis William Walter Jefferis (January 12, 1820 – February 23, 1906) was an American mineralogist and curator of the William S. Vaux Collection of minerals and artifacts at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences from 1883 to 1898. He perso ...

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the ...

(about 12,000 specimens), and a donation in 1902 of 2,600 gems from John L. Lewis, President of the Lewis Foundry & Machine Company located in Groveton, Pennsylvania. The museum also acquired

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April ...

s and

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typi ...

s representing Pittsburgh industries, including

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient ti ...

, and

bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs ...

, as well as local steel products, oil-bearing rock, crude

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...

, coke, and

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on la ...

. Starting in 1969, trustee Henry L. Hillman provided substantial donations for purchasing new specimens and building the current exhibit hall, which opened in 1980, and was expanded and remodeled from 2006-2007.

Collections

Hillman Hall contains more than 1,300 specimens, a curated sample of the Section Minerals collection of more than 30,000 specimens. The Hall is arranged in the following major sections: * Lithology and Processes - illustrates the processes that create and transform rocks and

s. * Crystallography - exhibits that explain

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macr ...

s and

crystallography Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics (condensed matter physics). The wo ...

. * Mineral Properties - physical properties of a variety of

s. * Fluorescence and Phosphorescence - displays of mineral

fluorescence Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, ...

and

phosphorescence Phosphorescence is a type of photoluminescence related to fluorescence. When exposed to light (radiation) of a shorter wavelength, a phosphorescent substance will glow, absorbing the light and reemitting it at a longer wavelength. Unlike fluo ...

. * Locality Suites - illustrates the diversity of mineral species that come from a single geographic environment and how they impacted civilizations. * Pennsylvania Minerals and Gems - specimens representing some of the finest minerals and

s from Pennsylvania. * Systematic Collection - exhibiting minerals in systematic groupings by chemical classification according to Dana's System of Mineralogy. * Masterpiece Gallery - an esthetic collection of notable mineral specimens from around the world. * Wertz Gallery - the museum's

collection, containing 17 permanent exhibits that display nearly 530 pieces, including a Birthstones exhibit.

References

Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems
* Undated pamphlet, Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems {{Authority control Carnegie Museum of Natural History Geology museums in the United States