The Gem,Lapidary, and Mineral Society of Montgomery
County's recent 51st annual show at the 4H building of the Montgomery County
Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg raised what otherwise could be a tough question. Where
else, and for that matter when, can one actually see first hand a wide range of different mineral species that were collected in Maryland?
The images above show a variety of Maryland species
featured in an exhibit entitled Mines,
Mineralogists, and Maryland. Each specimen is historically significant as
determined by such criteria as locality, the person who collected it, and/or
past ownership. Chris Luzier, the GLMSMC's president and enthusiastic curator of
the display, has surrounded the specimens with images and memorabilia related
to Maryland's mining history as well as to numerous renowned late mineralogists who
collected, identified, and studied Maryland specimens. The collection's previous owner was
the prominent Maryland collector Fred Parker, who availed much of his Maryland
collection to GLMSMC before moving last year to New Mexico. Fred
acquired the historic specimens from the well-known Collectors Edge mineral
dealership, which in turn had acquired them when the Philadelphia Academy
liquidated its hidden and neglected world-class mineral collection in 2007. Most
of the specimens are from localities that no longer exist. It is
unquestionably the ultimate historical display of Maryland Minerals
Pictured above is part of an additional display of other Maryland collected minerals formerly part of the Fred Parker Maryland
collection. Therein are numerous species beyond those represented in the historic display. Many are from localities not included in the Mines, Mineralogists, and Maryland exhibit
r
At last year's show, a specimen of Harford County radiated actinolite in steatite prompted our March 24, 2014 post entitled "Historic Maryland Epiphany." This year a specimen appearing similar to an unidentified Hunting Hill serpentine rock in this writer's collection inspired a second, albeit less convincing, epiphany. It interested me to note that Mindat refers to metaxite as a "synonym for chrisotile," A closer look could be in order.
Pictured at left is another particularly eye-catching exhibit
featuring specimens from the Fairfax Quarry in Centreville, Virginia. They are from the collection of GLMSMC member Jonathan
Ertman. Referred to in our November 7, 2009 post as "Maryland's Mr. Hunting Hill Garnet," Jon has focused much of his attention in recent years on acquiring the
no longer to be collected classic apophyllite/prehnite specimens for which Centreville is famous. It could be a reasonable conjecture that serious collectors from the Maryland/DC/Virginia area crave this mineral specimen genre more than any other, possibly even those gemmy Hunting Hill grossulars,
Beyond the aforementioned and about 40 more exhibits on the first floor were numerous workshops, related to lapidary
work as well a features to attract the interest of youngsters. Dealers completely filled the second floor. The GLMSMC sets up the building this way each year, and it works
great.
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