Press

ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the “16th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 4th floor Terrace Gallery, the show is part of the Museum’s annual fundraising weekend, the only time admission is charged at the Museum. Proceeds will help fund new acquisitions for the museum’s gem and mineral collections.

There is a general admission price of $6 per person, which also admits visitors to the “New York in Bloom” event the same weekend. There is no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. Tickets may be purchased at the door and there is limited free parking.

The show will feature over 20 vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be lectures, children’s activities and guided exhibition tours.

Publications, produced by the Museum’s Research and Collections staff, documenting research in New York’s natural and human history, will also be for sale. Materials on display will include information on geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

On Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, Dr. David Bailey, associate professor of geology at Hamilton College, will lecture on “Minerals of the Lockport Group of Central and Western New York”.

Dr. Charles Merguerian, professor of geology at Hofstra University, will lecture Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater on “Ancient Till Discovered at the World Trade Center Site”

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children, held throughout the weekend, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club.
• A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the Museum’s senior cartographer, about map-making processes and methods for producing the State Museum’s new geologic quadrangle map.

• Guided tours on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p. m. of the Minerals of New York gallery highlighting recent acquisitions by Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.

The “Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show” was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s geological staff, and has become one of the Museum's most well-attended annual events.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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