SMITHSONIAN ROCK AND ORE COLLECTIONS, 1955-56 AND 2005-06: AQUISITIONS AND LOANS 50 YEARS AGO, TODAY AND 50 YEARS HENCE

The Smithsonian's Rock and Ore Collections consists of ~270,000 specimen lots; accession records date to 1858. Rock and ore specimens have been curated separately from meteorites, minerals and gems since 1881. Data for collection acquisitions and loans yield information about trends in petrology, geochemistry and volcanology, as interpreted by 7 curators through 126 years. Compared to 1955-1956, today's subcollections are larger. More are topical, rather than geographically targeted, and emphasize analyzed materials useful for future research. In 1955-1956, about 500 specimens were acquired per annum; now, annual growth is 1000-3000 specimens. In 1956, the largest new subcollection was 78 rocks collected by William F. Foshag in California and Nevada in 1929. It consists of B ores, sedimentary and volcanic rocks. In 2005, Hatten Yoder's posthumous gift of melilite-bearing rocks totaled 418 specimens, solicited from colleagues to build a collection of Earth's melilite parageneses. Although cataloging of these materials is incomplete, Howard Wilshire's and F.R. Boyd's collections contain over 5000 well-studied mantle xenoliths. Collections are managed electronically, although a written catalog is also maintained. Research loans are our first priority—even unaccessioned specimens are available for study and loans, which are transacted world-wide. Curators do less collecting based on personal interests; instead, they search for scientifically valuable collections (e.g., Earth's mantle, active volcanoes, ore deposits and meteorite impacts). Short-term future goals include a web-based relational database to facilitate queries and sample requests, and cross-reference other databases. By combining growth with increased scientific curation, current curators hope to both build holdings and increase the scientific value of the Smithsonian's rock and ore specimens.