|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Best of Collectors |
Richard NELSON
I have been collecting since the third grade, an infatuated starry eyed boy following his Grandfather around. His collecting days began picking up Cree artifacts as he cleared a quarter section of land for his farm in Alberta in the early 1900's. The remaining pieces of this collection form the most treasured part of our collection today. When he would come to visit our family he always seemed to carry his own weight in rock onto the airplane. So, blame this on him.
I earned my M. S. in geology and then worked five years as a mine geologist and explorationist in the western U. S. Currently I teach earth science in New Jersey.
The spirit and goal of our collection has been aesthetics and curiosity. Ever since my studies of the epithermal mineral deposits of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado I have been fascinated by highly visible evidence of evolving conditions of fluids in an environment where minerals are crystallizing, and so the interest in pegmatites. Fluorites came into focus during a 1994 trip to Spain when I became very interested in the different colors, forms, and parageneses of the mineral. Marc Wilson, Carnegie Museum, told me back in 1977, collect Tsumeb, so, in 2000 I began collecting approximately thumbnail size specimens.
I hope that you have as much fun looking at these pieces as I have had collecting and photographing them.
|
|
Richard NELSON setting up his exhibit cases at the New Jersey Earth Science Associations annual Gem and
Mineral Show - April, 2003Click On Picture To Go Back.
|
| |
   |
|
