Download or read book Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems and Precious Stones in the United States National Museum (Classic Reprint) written by George P. Merril and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems and Precious Stones in the United States National Museum In the annual report of the United States National Museum for 1900 (1902)there was published a descriptive catalogue of the collections of gems in the United States National Museum, as prepared by Mr. Wirt Tassin, then assistant curator in charge of the Division of Mineralogy, assisted by A. S. Eakle, subsequently professor of mineralogy in the University of California. As this catalogue has long been out of print, and as the collection has increased considerably since it appeared, a new edition has been decided upon. In this, however, a different method of treatment has been adopted, and the subject matter has been quite largely rewritten, so that it represents an essentially new work. In order that just credit may be given to all concerned it may be well to state that the preparation of the catalogue was begun in 1916 by Dr. Edgar T.Wherry, then assistant curator in chaise of the mineralogical collection. His resignation in 1917 caused a long delay, and meanwhile, during the occupancy of the building by the War Risk Bureau (October, 1917, to March, 1919), it was decided to entirely rearrange and recatalogue the collection which had been heretofore included with the general collection of minerals. This work, which involved as well the weighing and measuring of each individual stone, has been slow and laborious, but has been carried through in almost its entirety by Miss Margaret W. Moodey, the recorder for the department. In preparing the text so much of the edition of 1902 as was suitable has been retained (see particularly pp. 141-178), to which has been added the descriptive matter prepared by Doctor Wherry. Important additional matter is furnished in the accounts of the pegmatites and their associated minerals, that of southern California having been prepared by Dr. W. T. Schaller, for several years custodian of the collection. Other important additions are the references to the Gardner Williams collection of rocks from the diamond mines of South Africa, the list of gem names and the table for the identification of precious stones. In addition to portraits of the founder and benefactor of the collection, and two colored plates illustrating gems in the collection, there have been added a number of plates showing typical localities from which gems are mined. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.