New Carnegie hall rocks
PITTSBURGH — Dazzling wonders await visitors to the renovated Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Ave. in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The hall reopens for public viewing on Saturday.
Hillman Hall has undergone an ambitious renovation project, including new display cases, new lights, new specimens and even a dramatic entranceway that will display a breathtaking selection of minerals.
Opening day activities will feature a children's scavenger hunt where children can find several different stations throughout the museum and collect assorted minerals.
Hillman Hall was temporarily closed in early 2006, and the majority of the collection was taken off of public view. During that time, the entire hall underwent a major face-lift that included obtaining new display cases and new lighting.
While Hillman Hall was closed, the museum acquired numerous minerals and gems that will be on display in the renovated hall. Such minerals include pieces from the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia Collection. The acquisition of minerals from this historical collection, coupled with the museum's own collection, make the museum home to the world's most important collection of Pennsylvania minerals.
The dazzling new minerals from this collection that will go on display in Hillman Hall include a 14-inch-long amethyst crystal that grew on smoky quartz and an 8-inch-tall obsidian-colored smoky quartz crystal. Both of these minerals were found in the same quarry in Delaware County and will be on display in the Masterpiece Gallery.
Other notable pieces from the Philadelphia Academy Collection include an unusual 17-inch-wide goethite. This large geode reveals an interior of steel-gray bubbles.
Other new minerals that go on display Saturday include a massive mint green calcite specimen that was once displayed during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Part of the renovation project of Hillman Hall included the creation of the Wertz Gallery of Gems and Jewelry, which will focus on gems, the crystals they come from, and jewelry composed of precious stones.
Originally opened in 1980, the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems is one of the top mineral and gem exhibits in the country. The entire hall is divided into eight sections including:
• Lithology and Processes. — Introduction into the processes of how rocks and minerals are made.
• Crystallography — The study of mineral crystals.
• Mineral Properties — Examples of the physical properties which aid in the identification of minerals.
• Fluorescence and Phosphorescence — Display of minerals that display luminosity, the ability to produce visible light.
• Locality Suites — Display of minerals that have shaped the world, from the American Gold Rush to the tin deposits that spurred the Roman conquest of the British Isles.
• Pennsylvania Minerals & Gems — Featuring the minerals that have fueled the growth of the state's industries as well as some of the finest specimens ever found.
• Systematic Collection — More than 400 beautiful specimens divided into their chemical classification.
• Masterpiece Gallery — A presentation of stunning and unique mineral specimens as natural works of art.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. The museum also has hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays after July Fourth through the week before Labor Day.
Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for senior citizens, $6 for children ages 3 to 18 and full-time students with ID, and free for children younger than 3. Parking is available at the museum's six-level parking facility directly behind the museum.
For more information, please call 412-622-3131 or visit www.carnegiemnh.org.
