THE DISPOSITION OF THE LARDNER VANUXEM MINERAL AND FOSSIL COLLECTION

The Lardner Vanuxem Mineral and Fossil Collection was claimed to be the largest, finest and most systematically arranged private collection in the United States in the 1840s. My research into the history of the collection is not only to dispel the misconception that the collection was lost but also to detail its interesting history.

Upon Vanuxem’s death, the collection was sold to William May Stewart, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology and later President of Stewart College, which is presently known as Rhodes College. A portion of the more than 22,000 specimens in the collection survived the encampment of the college by the Union army, two fires on campus, and the college’s move in 1925 from Clarksville TN to Memphis TN. Since the move, the collection has been used in teaching geology courses from 1968 to the present day.