HANDBOOK AND DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE 

 COLLECTIONS OF GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES 

 IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By George P. Merrill 



Head Curator of Geology, United States National Museum 



ASSISTED BY 



Margaret W. Moodey and Edgar T. Wherry 



1. HISTORY AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE COLLECTION. 



In 1SS4 Prof. F. W. Clarke, then honorary curator of the Division 

 of Mineralogy, prepared an exhibit of American precious stones as 

 a part of the United States National Museum's contribution to the 

 New Orleans exposition. The same collection was displayed at the 

 Cincinnati exposition in the following year, after which it was re- 

 turned to Washington and incorporated in the mineral collection of 

 the museum. From 1886 to 1890 the growth of the collection was 

 steady though slow. In 1891 the greater part of the collection of 

 precious stones made by Dr. Joseph Leidy, of Philadelphia, was pur- 

 chased by the museum and combined with what was already on hand 

 to form an exhibit for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago 

 in 1893, the whole being returned to Washington when that exposi- 

 tion closed. 



The great popularity of these collections, as attested by the num- 

 ber of visitors and their equally numerous queries, impressed upon 

 the Museum authorities the advisability of extending the series and 

 building it up s}'stematically, a work which, though at once under- 

 taken, proceeded at first slowly and with difficulty owing to the 

 expense involved. Fortunately this has to a considerable extent 

 been alleviated through the magnanimity of a private individual. 

 The collections are still, however, poorly balanced, lacking a satis- 

 factory showing of the rarer and more highly priced stones, a single 

 one of which, of suitable size for exhibition, would consume the 

 available income for an entire year. It is not too much t<> hope 

 and expect that this discrepancy, like the last, may also be remedied 

 through individual action. 



