gems

Amethyst Uruguay

This full-color, beautifully illustrated book focuses on the amethysts of Catalan country in Uruguay. In both English and German, Amethyst Uruguay details the past 200 years of the mining of these precious purple stones and of the people and cultures involved in those operations. It also includes fascinating analysis of the geology and mineralogy of the amethyst. The highlight, of course, is a generous series of richly colored photographs of these beautiful gems. Author Reinhard Balzer collects and studies gems and minerals, with a particular interest in amethysts.

Die Versteinerungen des Steinkohlengebirges von Wettin und Lobejun im Sallkreise

This book by Germar (1786-1853), a professor of mineralogy at the University of Halle and the director of its mineralogical cabinet/museum, focuses on fossils discovered in Saxony, constituting some of the earliest fossil material described in Europe. It is of considerable importance to paleobiology, as the plant and animal taxa described in it are the basis of species, genus, and family names in modern paleoentomology and paleobotany.

Der Conservator oder Prakitische Anleitung, Naturalien Aller Reiche zu Sammeln, zu Conserviren und fur Wissenschaftliche Zwecke

This is a manual for collecting, preserving, and organizing natural-history specimens: specifically, the arrangement of a mineral collection, organizing a botanical collection and creating an herbarium, and the conservation of zoological exhibits. These subjects form one of the Cullman Library's particular interests, in support of collection management staff as well as historical research at the National Museum of Natural History. The half-dozen or so German manuals in our collection fall mainly at either end of the 1800s, and this one forms a continuum through the 19th century.