Mineral: Almandine
Locality: Russell, Hampden County, Massachusetts, USA
Dimensions: 4.9 cm x 5.2 cm

Description: Several dark brown to nearly black almandine crystals to 2.1 cm associated with muscovite, quartz, and feldspar. Collected in 1885 by F. S. Johnson and his collecting partner Daniel Clark, both residents of Tyringham, Massachusetts. Johnson and Clark extracted the garnets from a pegmatite and sold or exchanged them for mineral specimens. Clark's mineral collection was donated to the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA. I had the good fortune to work at the museum during my high school years and the mineral display was the catalyst for my lifelong love of minerals.

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