FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Ed Huskinson]

Hi everyone. Now that I'm checked off on the procedure, I'm opening up a topic/site to share my minerals with everyone. Well, pictures thereof, that is.

I have collected minerals since 1958, put my first "collection" together the next year. Enclosed are a few photos of that effort. Because of the strong interest in all things geo-related, I became a geologist, a hard-rock minerals exploration geologist, and have worked in this field since 1969.

My first job was one I created for myself. While my father (a career air force man) was stationed in Norman, Oklahoma, I used to hang around the geology department and the Stoval Museum of Natural History. They had a wonderful little mineral room, and I spent hours there. One day I showed a group of visiting students around, and the lady at the desk there said that I should act as a guide for future visits. I did so, and was "paid" in duplicate specimens from the Museum's gift shop. I still have a few of those early acquisitions. This was in 1959, when I was 12.

First attendance at the Tucson show was in 1975. I was in town writing a summary report for Noranda, read in the paper that there was a gem show in town, running Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was Thursday evening. I figured they'd be setting up, the convention center was only two blocks away, so I walked over there. Down the escalator, no security whatsoever, and started walking around. I met Rock Currier, and Dick Gaines, Benny Fenn, many others. Dick displayed his beryllium minerals that year, and Rock put in a display as well. At their urging, I bagan my subscription to Mineralogical Record. I had found my passion (as Gail Spann says), and have pursued it ever since.

I am reposting the photos of my first collection, to keep the string intact, and I plan to post a few photos now and then, as time and circumstance allow.

The last time that Peter Megaw visited, he said "Ed, you have ever specimen you've ever acquired. Why don't you cull them out, sell off the lower quality ones?". I have no reply to that. It's just that I have bonded with them over the years, each one has a little story to tell, and I consider the little stories to be important. At least to me.

So this is why I have such an eclectic range of specimens. I bought the best that I could afford at the time. If only I had more money when the Hotazel rhodochrosites first came out.....

[Jordi Fabre]

A Peter's message for Ed and an image of a Fluorite from Ed's collection before located in an other post:

Peter
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
Posts: 42
Location: SWEDEN / LUXEMBOURG

Posted: Apr 20, 2009 09:44 Post subject: Re: Gail's collection
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Ed! Great fun you still have the collection.
My first collection I kept in a small matchbox decorated with mica, quartz, feldspar at the age of 4. Think it may still be back in Sweden.
I passed Kingman and stayed one night last week!

Peter

[Peter Megaw]

I guess the can tells us that you were going bad even before you found minerals! Just thought I'd take the opportunity to note that Ed's was the first real private collection I ever saw...set up in a trailer on a drilling project in the middle of Big Bend in Texas (although that was merely a selection from the complete Huskinson Collection)...and opened my eyes to the fact that not all of the world's good specimens went to museums (I had no idea how plentiful the supply was!). Ed also brought me to my first Tucson Show in 1977 and is fully (ir)responsible for starting me down the path as a mineral collector. Perhaps more to the point is that Ed encouraged me to collect with a focus and helped steer me towards Santa Eulalia. My comment about culling his collection was in the vein of encouraging focus...but anyone who knows Ed (and his eyes) knows that his vision of the world has always been different from everyone elses!

"Bring me the Good Stuff"

Gracias Lalo!

[Ed Huskinson]

Thank you Pedro, for your kind words. But now you'll have to explain "Bring me the good stuff!". There's a nice reiteration of what it was like to "swing the silver pick" in Santa Eulalia in the old (well, older) days. See Rocks & Minerals Vol. 74, No. 1, page 38. What a hoot!!! And your write-up on Cerro de Mercado is in there as well, page 20.

As for culling, well, now I have to. As you know, space is limited in the Mineral Room, so I have to separate the wheat from the chaff. Of course, by today's standards, much of the collection would be characterized as "chaff". Still, sometimes a $300.00 rock looks great when placed next to a $7.00 (well, $7.00 twenty-five years ago) rock. There's a Japanese term for this, I disremember what it is. It has to do with how things look when displayed/placed next to each other.

When I buy a specimen, I usually have specific place in mind to display it. Like: "Top shelf of the Waddell Case, north wall". That sort of thing.

But sometimes not. Sometimes the new specimen is an upgrade. In which case, it will occupy the footprint generated by the removal and storage of the older piece.

Again, thanks for the reply.

Lalo.

Ps: re Lauren's Corundum var. Sapphire. Is it a sedimentary occurrence, having travelled a bit from the source? Or is it actually on the original igneous matrix? Regardless, I admired it (very, very much, and "dibs" if she ever decides to part with it) in Tucson, but neglected to take the time for a close look at the matrix

Amigos siempre,

[Matt_Zukowski]

WOW! Outstanding wulfenite!

[Ed Huskinson]

Thanks Matt. It has been published in Rock and Gem, photo by Bob Jones, but I can't remember the issue. This piece was in the private collection of Elva Fenn, Benny's wife. I begged her to bring it to me, bought it sight unseen when they told me how good it was. Not a whit of buyer's remorse here. Some day, perhaps at Tucson in 2010, I'll tell you the story of the ones that got away. I still bemoan the incident. But we all have stories like that.

Enjoy!

Ed

[Matt_Zukowski]

I'd love to. Although I am sure you have more and more interesting "one that got away" stories, I remember a large plate of prismatic and isolated arsenopyrite crystals (the habit looked something like metallic danburites) that came up on Wendell's site. I was new to buying things then and since i don't pull the trigger unless I have some data on a fair price, I didn't get it. Should'a bought it.

[Ed Huskinson]

Yup. "Shoulda, coulda, woulda".

I share your anguish over the lost opportunity.

Ed

[Peter Megaw]

Ed...Lauren's corundum/sapphire was pictured in the latest Lapis (Jordi kindly posted it last week). It appears to be high-grade metamorphic with a coarse marble matrix. You only get dibs if I get dibs on the wulfenite!

For the rest of you..."Bring me the Good Stuff" dates to the late 70s when Ed was a buyer for Miguel Romero. He was in Santa Eulalia (where they remember him fondly for kissing good specimens) and was pretty sure that he was not being shown the top material. He held out a decent, but not great specimen and asked how much it was. He was told $25 or $40...upon which he dashed the piece to the concrete floor, smashing it to smithereens as he said "This is crap, bring me the good stuff" At which point boxes miraculously appeared from under the bed and out of the woodwork. Miguel got some good rocks that day!

[Ed Huskinson]

Oh, OK Pete. I could not tell from the photo the exact nature of the matrix. I thought perhaps it was from sedimentary terrain very near the source, with some sort of specific gravity enrichment in Al2O3 by swirling currents or whatever.

Coarse marble. Well, that makes sense. Thanks for the quick response.

Hasta la later,

'duardo

[Peter Megaw]

Pero recuerdate que las rocas solamente dar respuestas a las preguntas que damos!

[Peter]

Loveley specimens Ed and thank you for bringing Peter M into this hobby!
Peter, will you be in St M this year? Your daughters Sapphire is just lovely!!!

[Tobi]

Hi Ed, on the the picture of your "north wall": The specimen right to this extraordinary Wulfenite - is this a Galena on Siderite from Neudorf, Harz Mountains, Germany?

[Carles Millan]

Hi Ed!

Very good wulfenite (in the shelves in the Waddell Case, north wall). I like it! Could you post a separated photo?

[Peter]

Buenos Ed!
Your labels are exceptionally beautiful!
Did you shorten locality informtion on them for esthetic or time/energy purposes?
Peter

[Peter Megaw]

We're not going to be able to make SMaM this year...sad, because we LOVED that show last year and that's where Lauren found that sapphire everyone likes so much! Instead, she'll be on a 3-week school exchange visit to France at that time...in Compiene north of Paris... in case there's someone nearby who has a collection she and her host family could visit.

We probably should give Ed second-hand credit for her collecting too!

[Peter]

Very true Peter. We should not forget the chain of inspiration.

I was inspired of my University collection from age of 10, built by Albert Karlsson-Ygger. He was a Swedish inventor who immigrated to the USA and was a member of the NY Mineral Club in the 1920s-1940s.

He himself had been inspired by a school collection on the Swedish east coast which I have seen . This collection was rescued after having been thrown out as landfill under a new gymnastics/sporthall of the school ! !

The oldest well documented specimen is a galenite collected in 1694 in the vein Vattpelarbandet in the Sala silver mine! The label is still glued to the specimen! ! !

At this time my own ancestors were miners and mining engineers!

[Peter Megaw]

Nice to be able to trace that kind of ancestry in the field.

This cartoon is inspiring too...at both ends

[Ed Huskinson]

Wow!!! What an eye you have!!! Yes, it is a Neudorf Galena, a magnificent spinel twin on siderite (I think). I first saw this specimen maybe 25 years ago when visiting Bob Jones in Phoenix. I'm unsure just exactly where/how he/they (Evan owned it) acquired it. I've been meaning to ask Evan about it, but never seem to remember when I see him.

The specimen came from a university in germany though, and it has suffered at the hands of the ignorant, much as the specimens with which you are dealing have been mishandled. Students (or whomever) have used the basal pinacoid for scratch testing a couple of times, and someone even took a blowpipe to one edge!!! Unbelievable!!! But hey, damage and all, I still love it. Maybe it was Goethe himself who did the testing on the piece. I like to think so, but...

I will be posting an individual picture of the piece soon, just for your benefit. Give me a day or so.

Again, good eye on your part.

Ed

[Ed Huskinson]

Peter. One day, long ago, I acquired a specimen with a beautifully written calligraphic label. "Wow!" I thought, "I sure wish I could do that." And then I thought "Well, why not?". So I taught myself calligraphy. Bought some books and started practicing. Because each one is hand-written, space becomes an issue, usually necessitating foreshortening of the locality information. At least on the display label. The curating technique that I use has all of the pertinent (and sometimes impertinent) information on each specimen. I consider these stories to be important, much the way John Barlow felt this data to be important.

An example of one of my labels is featured in the American Mineral Treasures book, page 9, upper right-hand side. When the special display of specimens that had passed through the hands of Dave Wilber was featured at the Tucson show in when, 1985? 1990? Well, whenever, I showed up at the convention center to help with Best Of Species check-in, as I do every year, and was approached by Jim Bleess, who had put the thing together. There were about 30 or 40 specimens, and he asked me if I'd write the labels for them. "Sure." And I did so, wrote steadily for the next two or three hours. It was fun, and I was able to see the specimens up close and personal, and became privy to little stories about some of them.

I plan to open up a thread or string or topic, whatever it's called, on the curation of mineral specimens. I look forward to an energetic back-and-forth on a subject that is near and dear to my heart.

More later, and thanks for the timely reponse and interest.