Wednesday 2 December 2009

18th Century Mineral Collection goes Online

After two years of hard work, the St. Aubyn mineral collection can now be viewed online with images of the specimens themselves. Since January 2008, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery have been researching their St. Aubyn Collection of minerals and pressed plants after securing a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. During that time, members of staff in the natural history department have uncovered lots of information about the life of Sir John St. Aubyn (1758-1839), and have carried out a variety of work on the collection, from cleaning the herbarium sheets to re-storing the mineral collection in an improved environment.  
Creating an online resource where the famous mineral collection can be viewed marks an important milestone in the culmination of the project. Alongside Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery‘s own mineral collection of St. Aubyn specimens; it is also possible to see minerals which were located in external collections from around the country during this project.  
The St. Aubyn project is due to complete in January 2010, when an exhibition on the life of Sir John begins its tour in the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro.
For more information about the touring exhibition, please contact Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery on 01752 304774.

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