Accessions— Geology 



The purchase of the collection of the late Charles D. Nelson of 

 Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the most outstanding accession of 

 the year, both in number of specimens and in importance. Included 

 in the collection are several hundred fossil plants and about eighty- 

 three thousand fossil invertebrates. Of the fossil plants, a large and 

 well-preserved trunk of a fossil eyelid tree is of particular interest. 

 The collection also includes some four thousand mineral specimens 

 and a large quantity of material of economic importance. Many of 

 these mineral and ore specimens were collected from such world- 

 famous localities as Franklin Furnace, New Jersey, Crestmore, Cali- 

 fornia, and Magnet Cove, Arkansas, and cannot be duplicated now. 



An exchange with Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Kirkby of Riverside, 

 California, enriched our collection with 880 insect-bearing con- 

 cretions from the Miocene Barslow shale of the Mojave Desert, 

 California (see page 60). The insects are preserved in three dimen- 

 sions and are in some respects superior even to the famed amber 

 insects of the Baltic Oligocene. 



Erik N. Kjellesvig-Waering, Research Associate, presented about 

 a hundred specimens of fossil invertebrates that he had collected 

 while on an exploratory visit to Yaurichambi, Bolivia. This is a 

 classic locality from which Alcide d'Orbigny, a century ago, described 

 several important fossils, of which representatives are included in 

 this valuable collection. Dr. and Mrs. Robert H. Whitfield, Asso- 

 ciates in Fossil Plants, gave 150 excellent specimens of Lower Eocene 

 flora that they collected in Puryear, Henry County, Tennessee. 

 Other materials received by the Department of Geology during the 

 year are listed at the end of this Report (see page 120). 



Care of the Collections— Geology 



With the aid of Duncan Dunlap, Miss Nancy Hayes, and Ben 

 Massie, Antioch College students, the study collection, with the 

 exception of the silicate minerals, was reclassified according to the 

 new Dana's System of Mineralogy. Approximately ten thousand 

 specimens were rearranged in the collection, all identification labels 

 were verified, and mineral names were brought up to date on the 

 labels. David Techter, Assistant in the Division of Fossil Verte- 

 brates, catalogued the entire Bebb Collection of La Brea tar-pool 

 mammals that was a gift of Northwestern University Dental 

 School (see Annual Report 1954, page 54) and completed the task 



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