Shining Stones: Gems & Minerals at Yale's Peabody Museum

Shining Stones: Gems & Minerals at Yale’s Peabody Museum

travelertina

09:12:15 December 22, 2019

US,US: New England

For pure beauty in a dark room, little can beat the gems and minerals at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. The displays span five or six galleries, each one filled with vivid colors, wild shapes, and seemingly impossible textures.

Large white quartz sandstone formation with folded, rippling surfaces, one of the gems and minerals at Yale's Peabody Museum

Around the World of Gems and Minerals at Yale’s Peabody Museum

The museum offers a jaw-dropping look at gems and minerals from all around the world. Pretty much every continent is represented here — you’ll have the chance to see wonders from Asia …

Tall pink, purple, and blue translucent elbaite prism rising from a pale quartz base, among the gems and minerals at Yale's Peabody Museum. — Elbaite with quartz and albite from Afghanistan

Golden pyrite crystals embedded in pale calcite blades against a black background at Yale’s Peabody Museum — Pyrite with calcite from China

… Australia …

Blue kyanite crystals scattered across dark, shimmering biotite matrix at Yale’s Peabody Museum — Kyanite with biotite

… Europe …

Large translucent yellow sulphur crystal with sharp geometric face's on a pale mineral matrix at Yale

Tall mallet-shaped translucent selenite crystal with blocky orange halite crystals at Yale’s Peabody Museum — Halite with gypsum (variety selenite) from Germany

… Africa…

Translucent slice of fluor-liddicoatite with striking triangular bands of pink, green, yellow and black At Yale’s Peabody Museum

Bright green and blue circular malachite slices with concentric ring patterns, part of the gems and minerals collection at Yale's Peabody Museum. — Malachite from Democratic Republic of the Congo

… South America …

Golden-yellow mango quartz crystals rising from a sparkling white crystalline matrix at Yale’s Peabody Museum — Mango quartz from Colombia

Vivid green emerald beryl surrounded by large white calcite crystals, part of the gems and minerals at Yale's Peabody Museum — Beryl (emerald with calcite) from Colombia

… and North America:

Dense green pyromorphite specimen covered with many small blocky crystals and patches of rusty orange — Pyromorphite from the US (Pennsylvania)

Microcline, variety amazonite, from the US (Colorado)

Mineral Wonders of China

You’ll find some particularly remarkable mineral formations from China on display —and the Chinese pieces often seem to be among the largest.

White aragonite specimen covered with dense sprays of thin needle-like crystals — Aragonite

Dense cluster of long, metallic-looking silver stibnite crystals, among the gems and minerals at Yale's Peabody Museum. — Stibnite

Delicate white calcite crystal formation with a narrow central stem and layered, wing-like crystals spreading outward — Stibnite

Delicate white aragonite formation with feathery, branching crystals rising from a dense base, one of the gems and minerals at Yale's Peabody Museum — Aragonite, variety flos ferri

The United States: From Crystals to Fossils

The Peabody also seems to have a particularly rich collection of pieces from the United States.

Translucent blocky fluorite crystal glowing with orange, pink, and purple colors beside a dark purple sphalerite cluster at Yale's Peabody Museum — Fluorite with sphalerite from Illinois

Vivid blue azurite specimen among the minerals and gems at Yale’s Peabody Museum in New Haven — Azurite from Arizona

Brilliant orange mineral specimen formed from clusters of thin, blade-like crystals at Yale — Azurite from Arizona

Large cave-like quartz formation (variety chalcedony) with intricate white, lavender, and amber-colored layers and projections — Quartz (variety chalcedony) from Florida

One of the most spectacular pieces is this giant panel from Wyoming, made up of a 50-million-year-old fossilized palm frond surrounded by dozens of fossilized fish:

Large fossilized palm frond surrounded by dozens of small fossil fish at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History

Dark fossilized fish preserved in a pale slab of rock at the David Friend Hall at Yale's Peabody Museum

All the Drama: David Friend Hall

The most spectacular minerals and gems take pride of place in the museum’s dramatically lit David Friend Hall. This is where you’ll find the biggest and the brightest.

Bright green crystals scattered across a white mineral matrix at Yale University’s Peabody Museum in New Haven

It’s impossible to tell from a photo, but that example of fluorite with quartz from China must be at least three feet wide. There are genuine stunners in this room, from blood-red crystals to a green structure that looks just like an insect.

White radial quartz formation with delicate fan-like layers at Yale University’s Peabody Museum — Rhodochrosite From South Africa

Brilliant red cubic crystals clustered tightly together against a dark background — Rhodochrosite From South Africa

Origin Stories: How Gems and Minerals Come Into Being

The introductory room of the gems and minerals display teaches visitors about where rocks are found and how they form. It begins with examples of surficial minerals, those found at or near the Earth’s surface.

Purple and amber translucent crystal specimen displayed at the Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut — Quartz (variety ametrine) from Bolivia

Then it moves on to minerals from magmatic environments, which form when molten rock material cools and crystallizes.

Shiny labradorite slab flashing vivid blue and gold at the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Hav — Labradorite from Madagascar

Really exciting things happen when fluids meet heat, creating rocks with hydrothermal origins.

Golden metallic cubic pyrite crystals projecting from a pale rock matrix at Yale’s Peabody Muse

Metamorphic minerals — rocks that form from other rocks as a result of changes like pressure or temperature — tend to be a little less showy.

Grey rock streaked with pink and red, an example of a metamorphic mineral at Yale’s Peabody Museum — Corundum with zoisite and parasite from Tanzania

Glowing Rocks

This room also gives you a look at fluorescent minerals, including calcite, gypsum, fluorite, and opal. With the push of a button, you can watch a pale, yellow-ish gray rock turn into this:

Sodalite with opal fragments glowing bright orange under UV light

We enjoyed this process so much that we pressed the UV light button again and again, oohing and aahing over the various colors that appeared each time.

Home State Pride: Connecticut Minerals

Yale pays homage to its home state with an exhibit dedicated to minerals from Connecticut.

Image gallery image — Fluorapatite with albite

Jewels and Baubles at the Peabody

And no exhibit of gems would be complete without jewels — but this is even more fitting at Yale, since its namesake, Elihu Yale, was a diamond merchant. Nothing here can be traced back to Mr. Yale himself, but you will find the Yale Yellow Diamond, cut during his time.

Faceted Yale Yellow Diamond sparkling against a black background at the Peabody Museum in Connecticut

If you like your stone with names, the Peabody also boasts the Yale Blue Sapphire and the Starry Night Sapphire.

The tiny jewelry gallery offers a display of both uncut jewels …

Brilliant hot-pink ruby cluster resting on a broad, flat white crystal base

… and a dazzling array of gems transformed by fantastic settings. You’ll find rubies, sapphires, opals, spinels, tourmalines, amethysts, and more.

Gold pendant with two peacocks set with large iridescent opals and small rubies and sapphires at the Peabody Museum in New Haven

Oval carved quartz dragon brooch framed by pearls and deep pink gemstones in gold

Minerals in Space

While they’re not strictly minerals, the meteorites at the Peabody are well worth a look — including this improbably heavy 813-pound specimen found in Arizona in 1891.

Canyon Diablo meteorite specimen from Arizona at Yale's Peabody Museum, with a pale cut surface and scattered metallic inclusions — Canyon Diablo Meteorite

While it may look like a solid chunk of metal, this giant lump from outer space contains minerals found right here on Earth, including kamacite and taenite. Meteorites provide a remarkable reminder that many of Earth’s minerals exist well beyond our planet.

Irregular dark meteorite specimen covered with many small reflective pale patches at Yale's Peabody Museum — Seymchan meteorite from Russia

Yale’s Peabody Museum: Don’t Miss the Rest

Most of the Peabody’s gems and minerals reside on the museum’s third floor. But you’ll find more specimens scattered throughout the museum, and it’s worth wandering through to see other wonders. Make sure to seek out these two remarkable ammolites — fossilized shells composed of aragonite — in the Hall of Dinosaurs.

Iridescent red, orange, and green ammolite fossil shell at the Peabody Museum at Yale University

Iridescent ammolite fossil shell glowing with red, orange, yellow, and green bands at the Peabody

How to See Gems and Minerals at Yale’s Peabody Museum

Hours: Check the Peabody’s website for opening hours
Cost: Admission is free — now and forever
Address: On the Yale campus at 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Parking: There’s metered parking along nearby streets or in Lot 22V. For more on parking, check here.
How Long to Spend: Give yourself 30-45 minutes if you just want to explore gems and minerals. For the entire museum, allot at least an hour and a half

For another university collection of wonderful and shiny objects, pay a visit to the extraordinary Glass Flowers exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Can’t resist just a few more gem and mineral pics? Me either!