История минералогии и естественнонаучных музеев

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19th century Australian geology collections: their educational and cultural significance

Branagan D. F.

Division of Geology & Geophysics, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia, dbranaga@mail.usyd.edu.au

Not till 1821, more than thirty years after European settlement began, was there any attempt to set up a museum in the then flourishing British colony at Sydney. This embryo museum included minerals and fossils, and was begun by the gentlemen of the short-lived Philosophical Society of Australasia. However this material became incorporated in the collections of the Australian Museum, which began effective activities in 1829, and continues today as a major scientific institution. In its early years rocks and fossils formed a very minor proportion of the small collection, but by 1885 the minerals alone numbered more than 2700, and were displayed in a variety of ways, designed to instruct as well as entertain. Although the fossil collections also grew in this museum, they did not receive major attention until the 20th century.

Earlier, mineral and fossil collections, such as those made by the botanist, Robert Brown, with Matthew Flinders on the Investigator, 1801–5, by the Baudin expedition (L. Depuch and J.C. Bailly), 1800–4, and by P.P. King and A. Cunningham (1818–22), returned to Europe, where they received variable attention at the time, and generally poor curation in later years. Even some later valuable collections, such as that made by P.E. Strzelecki, between 1839–44, donated by him in 1850 to the British Museum (Natural History), cannot now be found. And material sent by L.Leichhardt to Paris has suffered a similar fate.

In Australia itself, both the original rock/mineral collection made by S. Stutchbury for the Australian Museum in the 1850s, and a duplicate collection sent to the Tasmanian Museum (Hobart) are lost. Much of the collection of rocks and fossils made by the Rev. W.B. Clarke, which was displayed in the Sydney Exhibition of 1879–80, and was to form the nucleus of the collection of the newly established Museum of Technology, was destroyed when the Garden Palace, built for the Exhibition, was burnt to the ground in September 1882. The collections made by Fr. J.E. Tenison Woods are held by the same museum, but are not presently on display.

Such problems relate to the poor funding and lack of staff in many periods of the functioning of the museums, but probably also in some cases to the major interests of the early principal curators, who were biologists rather than geologists. As early as 1832 J. Lhotsky stressed the need for a department of mineralogy in the Australian Museum, which he believed would promote “future discoveries from the analogy of the specimens”.

Palaeontological collections, particularly vertebrate material, have received perhaps better treatment than mineral and rock collections, because of their uniquely antipodean character, but many type specimens are in European collections, rather than in Australia, although attempts are being made to correct this matter.

Despite the establishment of museums in Hobart (1841), Melbourne (1853) and other cities, the practice of sending valuable original specimens, particularly vertebrate fossils, to Europe, for study by acknowledged experts, continued till late in the 19th century, by which time a body of skilled scientists was available in Australia for studying the material, and there was strong cultural support for retaining it in Australia. There was also some interest in building up collections of European fossils, for comparative purposes. This was specially so in the National Museum, Melbourne, under its first Director, Sir F. McCoy, 1853–1899.

Generally speaking, later mineral and rock collections have received better curation, and serve as a useful source for research and educational purposes, although there are still many deficiencies, due to lack of funding, suitable space for display, storage and research.

Significant private collections were a feature of the Australian colonies from the earliest years, and those by Lhotsky, J. Menge, W. Keene and C. Nicolay attracted considerable attention, and were used for instructional purposes. Some of these later formed the basis of important museum collections.

One important mineral collection was begun by a hotel-keeper in the mining town of Broken Hill, New South Wales. He exchanged beer for samples brought in by miners when the mines were being developed in 1883–90. Thus he obtained many wonderful specimens of oxidised silver, lead and zinc minerals, which later became very rare. When the collection was about to be sold to an American collector in 1909, Professor Edgeworth David, of Sydney University, persuaded an industrialist to buy the collection for the nation. This collection was divided up, by agreement the University retaining the bulk, but giving specimens to the Australian Museum, the Technical College (Technological Museum), “The Government” (probably for display in London), and the Mining Museum (Sydney).

While most Universities and Schools of Mines established collections for instruction, their curation and development usually depended on individual enthusiasm. The Schools of Mines at Bendigo and Ballarat, important gold-mining centres in Victoria, had extensive displays. At Ballarat, the minerals, curated first by Singleton, (a Freiberg, and R.S.M. graduate), and in the 1880s by F.Krause, attracted more than 16 000 visitors in 1887. But by 1920 the college president called for citizens to support the museum as “it is not the work of the [State] Education Department to find money for museums”. Such support did not eventuate, and in the long run both museums closed.

During the second half of the nineteenth century there was considerable effort by the various separate colonies put into preparing Australian rock and mineral displays for major exhibitions, both in Australia and abroad. These were prepared under the care of skilled individual geologists such as A.R. Selwyn, R. Daintree, C.S. Wilkinson, H.Y.L. Brown, and usually attracted considerable attention and evoked admiration. Because of their lesser economic significance, fossil displays did not feature so prominently.

The urgings of these geologists and their colleagues helped to some extent in the development of the geological sections in many of the major museums in Australia, but the growth of these sections and of the few museums devoted essentially to geological themes in Australia was, and still is haphazard, and generally below the level of interest and support warranted by the economic importance of mining to the past and future development of Australia, and by the scientific significance of the unique nature of the palaeontological record of the continent.

Thus, despite the interest and efforts of concerned geologists, the concept of the geological museum as an instructional body received only limited support in the nineteenth century, and the collections within universities and schools of mines were mere adjuncts to other means of education for both professionals and the general public.

HISTORY OF MINERALOGICAL MUSEUM ECOLE DES MINES DE PARIS

Djemai A., Touret L.

Ecole Nationale Sup. des Mines, Paris, France, djemai@musee.ensmp.fr

The Museum and the Ecole des Mines de Paris share the same history. With the progress made in techniques during the Industrial Revolution, there was a demand for scientific mineralogy, which was then made concret in 1778 when the “foundation of a Chair of Mineralogy and Metallurgy in Paris Mint” took place. The chemist Balthazar Georges Sage (1740–1824) was assigned to it and transferred his personal collections to the Mint. A decree on 19 Feburary 1783 created the Ecole des Mines which was set up in the same Villa.

In 1794 the School was transferred to the Mouchy Villa and placed under the responsability of the Mining Engineering Agency which had just been set up.

A decree issued by the committee for Public Security on the 24th day of the tenth month and the second year in the French Republican Calendar, details that a mineralogy exhibition room “containing all products from all over the world and all products from the Republic, set out in order of locality” must be set up. For this purpose, several private collections were gathered together some of which had been seized by the Committee (the Guettard, Dietrich, Joubert, Lavoisier collections etc).

Rene Just Hay (1743–1822), who is today known as the father of Crystallography, was the first curator. He wrote his “Treatise on Mineralogy” which set out the basic rules for crystallography and the bases for the modern classification of minerals at the Mining Engineering Agency.

In 1815, the Ecole des Mines moved to the Vendome Villa. This villa, which was built in 1706 at the request of the Carthusian monks, was let to the Duchess of Vendome. The Duchess had this building made bigger underunder the supervision of the architect Le Blond and left her name to it. The west side of the Vendome Villa has been classed as a historical monument; the first floor, where the Museum was housed from 1815 onwards is well known for the beauty of its series of linked rooms.

After it was set up, the collection gradually grew through donations and the acquisitions of exceptional samples. It was reorganized by Claude Guillemin at the end of the fifties and today has somewhere in the region of 85.000 samples.

There are aesthetic pieces some of which are amongst the finest samples known : Willemite from Franklin Furnace, Titanite from Maevatanana, Danburite from Anjanabonoina, Dioptase from Reneville, Fersmite from Kandreho, Brazillianite from Conseileihero Pina, Thorianite from Fort Dauphin.

The main part of the presentation is an 80m-long gallery where the picture windows open out on to the Luxembourg Gardens. The samples are in the order of the chemico-structural classification by Hugo Strunz.

Among the exceptional pieces, some are the finest great known today: Boleite from Mexico, Gersdorfite and Erythrite from Morocco, Vivianite from the Cameron.

Actually, one could rank the Ecole des Mines de Paris Museum fourth in the world for the quality of the exhibits on display to the public. It comes first in the world for its systematic collection and has more than 700 types of mineral species which have been described from the 19th century up to now.

THE ROYAL NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTION IN VIENNA (18th CENTURY)
— FROM PRIVATE TREASURE HUNTING TOWARDS THE FORMATION OF
A NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS FOR THE COLLECTION OF MINERALS

Marianne Klemun

Institut für Geschichte der Universität Wien, Institut for history of Vienna,
Vienna, Austria

This paper deals with the fact that the famous private natural collection of a royal court transformed to a public nationwide collection in the 18th century. In this connection the question, how cultural and political structures and the slow formation of a national consciousness became a dimension of collection is a very important one.

In order to establish a Court Natural History Cabinet of its own — separated from other collections (“Physical Cabinet”, the “Coin and Antique Collection”) — Emperor Franz I decided around the middle of the 18th century to buy the famous „museo” of Jean de Baillou, who had worked as a director of gardens and mines at Tuscany. The collection of Baillou consisted mainly cf minerals which had been collected in Italy (only some had come from famous places all over the world). Moreover, there were a lot of fossils, partly of mussels, snails, crustaceans. It was one of the most famous and richest European collections of its type. In the Emperor's new home in Vienna the monarch's passion for science, modern know how and his selfconfidence were reflected in his collection, with him becoming a kind cf centre not only for politics but for a special taste.

The Emperor spent enormous amounts of money on the collection and also sent out a young natural scientist for acquiring more items for his collection for him. The collection was the Emperor's private treasure and was housed near the Library of the Viennese Court. Baillou was nominated as its managing director for life and after his death his son succeeded him in this function. But since the old Jean de Baillou did not care to keep a catalogue (nor did he want one for keeping the collection private to the extent of secrecy) and the young Baillou did not have the competence for cataloguing no catalogues were kept.

After Franz I had died Maria Theresia wanted to have a systematic overview of the collections in her court. So Ignaz von Born, who had already made a name for himself at the Prague mint and Bergrath (mine inspector's) office was appointed, to devise a first catalogue of the collection. In the course of this work he pointed out the low standard of the natural history collection and the scientific necessity of a rich mineral collection.

It was also a time in which Maria Theresia's government started to do something against individualism and federalistic tendencies in administration. In the mining sector this meant that the government tried to get more evidence of minerals of all its countries and of all the different types of rocks which where typical of the countries of the Habsburg-Monarchy. So the mining administration at Vienna ordered the mine inspectors to send to Vienna a documentation of minerals and rocks, which had been found there. Thus the transfer from the private collection towards anational collection had begun. It represented a new concept of scientific interest with a political dimension. What was happening on a political level — the tendency towards unification and centralism — was also reflected in the arts, in this case in collecting minerals. Private treasure hunting was not the priority anymore, it was being replaced by a territorial consciousness for collecting precious items.

HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF SAPPHIRES AND SAPPHIRE MINING IN AUSTRALIA

Oldroyd David

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, D.Oldroyd@unsw.edu.au

The first Australian sapphires were found by Samuel Stuchbury (1851) in gold sluices in inland New South Wales, and then by William Branwhite Clarke near Inverell in northern New South Wales (1853). Twenty years later the first discoveries were made in Queensland, but initially the gems were not thought commercially significant. Commercial exploitation of the northern New South Wales fields began in 1919. Sapphires were discovered near Anakie in Queensland by A.J. Richardson about 1873, and were subsequently produced in quantity for export, especially to Russia where the blue stones were prized. With the decline of the Russian trade after the fall of the Czars, the Australian industry contracted severely, but it revived in the 1960s, as a result of the application of the Thai heat treatment procedure for colour enahancement, giving a boom the following decade. By 1989, however, with the decrease of the industry due to exhaustion of supplies, 80% of production was from just one miner (Tom Nunan); but it increased thereafter, following investment by 'Great Northern Mining' in Queensland. Sapphires have commonly been sent to countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka for treatment and cutting, but most Australian sapphires have industrial use. The impact of the rise and fall of the sapphire industry on places like Inverell and Anakie serves as a microcosm of the social histories of mining areas. The history of scientific researches on sapphires, and their geological origins, in Australia will be discussed, with particular reference to work conducted at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Авторский указатель:

B

Branagan D. F. 30

Brause H. 30

D

Djemai A. 31

E

Epмолаева Н.П. 10

K

Klemun M. 32

O

Oldroyd D. 33

T

Touret L. 31

А

Анастасенко Г.Ф. 1, 3

Б

Бессуднова З.А. 4

Богданова Г.Н. 5

Борисова В.В. 7

Буторина Л. А. 8

В

Вдовыкин Г.П. 9

Волошин А.В. 7

Г

Грек А.Г. 17

Д

Дорохова Г.И. 13

З

Зарицкий П.В. 12

Зинченко О.В. 19

И

И.В.Борисов 7

Иваников В.В. 22

Иванова Т.К. 13

К

Кольцов А.Б. 22, 23

Ксенева Т.Г. 21

Кузнецов С.О. 14

Кузнецова Л.К. 15

Л

Лопатин О.Н. 28

М

Минина Е.Л. 16

Н

Некос В.В. 17

П

Павлишин В.И. 19

Панов Б.С. 19

Подобина В.М. 21

Порицкая Л.Г. 22, 23

Пороховниченко Л. 21

Р

Родыгин С.А. 21

С

Савва Н.Е. 25

Смышлявкина Е.О 28

Совлук В.И. 17

Сокол-Кутыловский И.О. 26

Ч

Чередниченко С.В 27

Ш

Шаповалов В.С. 25

Шуликов Е.С. 28