Press

ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the 14th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held Saturday, February 24 and Sunday, February 25 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Museum’s 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. Among recent acquisitions are several new collections purchased with funds from last year’s show.

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.

Available for sale at the Museum's publications booth will be publications produced by the New York State Museum’s Research and Collections Division documenting research in natural and human history in New York. Materials on display will include data in geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

Dr. Marian Lupulescu, curator of geology at the New York State Museum, will lecture Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Carole F. Huxley (former Museum) Theater on “The Many Forms of Calcite.” Dr. Lupulescu will highlight many of the mineral treasures held by the State Museum.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, Dr. Ed Landing, the state paleontologist at the State Museum, will lecture on “Critter Minerals - the Minerals That Plants and Animals Create.”

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 of the expanded Ancient Life of New York exhibition by Dr. Landing on Saturday at 2 p.m. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.

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

•Identification by Museum scientists of fossils and minerals brought in by the public, throughout the weekend.

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 “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 popular 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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