W
hile the re-opening of the newly renovated Allison and Roberto Mignone Gems & Minerals Halls at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) may be, as the museum’s President, Ellen Futter, said, “The first major opening in the city since the shut down,” this is an event that many in our industry have been anxiously anticipating for years. It’s not like we didn’t love the old halls, we did, but I think many of us have to admit it was the kind of love you had to convince others to appreciate. Compared to the 94-foot Blue Whale suspended from the ceiling, or the museum’s many giant dinosaurs, or even the Lucy skeleton in the adjoining Hall of Human Origins, the former Gems & Minerals Halls had a more subtle, nostalgic charm. With its brown shag carpeting it earned its moniker “the nanny room” by serving as a refuge for tired, Upper West Side nannies who were able to let their charges loose for a bit in the dim cavernous space.

The sprawling new, 11,000 square foot layout of the redesigned and reinstalled Gems & Minerals Halls is a stark contrast to the dark nooks and crannies of the past. Its more than 5,000 minerals, many of which have never been seen before, sourced from 98 countries, form an engaging scientific journey. The Hall’s curator, George Harlow, said he wanted to tell the stories of the minerals so that people could begin to relate to them, ergo making them more approachable. The way in which the space is curated, and the information included with every specimen, tell the fascinating story of how minerals formed on earth, and illustrate the ways in which humans have used them throughout the millennia for personal adornment, tools and technology.

Some of the Hall’s stand-out items include the return of the 563-carat Star of India sapphire, and the Patricia Emerald, a 632-carat gem crystal mined from the Chivor Mine in Colombia, one of the most magnificent uncut emeralds in the world. When you walk into the Hall, you’re greeted by two of the Museum’s new acquisitions, a pair of towering, amethyst geodes that are among the world’s largest on display, before being treated to exhibits arranged to show the geological conditions and processes by which minerals form: igneous, pegmatitic, metamorphic, hydrothermal and weathering.

The Hall contains specimens from all of New York’s 5 boroughs, including the 9-pound almadine “Subway Garnet” discovered under Manhattan’s 35^th Street in 1885 (it was actually discovered during a sewer excavation but renamed to evoke a more gentile provenance). According to the museum placard, “Thanks to hundreds of years of excavation for building foundations, pipes, sewers, tunnels and subways, this city is one of the most extensively excavated areas on Earth that isn’t a mine.” Another stop-you-in-your track display is a wall-sized panel of Fluorescent rock that glows in shades of orange and green, and was sourced from our neighbors in Sterling Hill, New Jersey.

While I may have more general rock knowledge than your average, none gemstone-obsessed person, my all too brief experience of the new Gems & Minerals Halls only served to wallop me with how much I don’t know. I am certain I’ll be returning to this hallowed space after the June 12 opening and many times thereafter to learn about the origins of birthstones, the chemical classification system that scientists use to organize Earth’s mineral species, and the optical properties of minerals and their interaction with light. And of course, I will be back to spend more time with the Crown Jewel (pun 100% intended!) of the re-opening of the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems & Minerals, the “Beautiful Creatures” exhibit curated by Jewelry Historian and founder of The Adventerine, Marion Fasel.

Reservations to visit the Hall are included in a General Admission ticket and are available here.