THE mineral collections of the University of Michigan had an unusual beginning. One of the first acquisitions by the Board of Regents, purchased in 1838 for $4,000, was the Baron L. Lederer Mineral Collection, consisting of about 2,600 specimens, chiefly from European countries. Thus, before there were any students or classrooms, the University had a mineral collection. In spite of our knowledge concerning this early beginning, a period of sixty years followed about which very little is known. Record books still exist, in which the various items of the Lederer Collection were catalogued, and in which succeeding acquisitions were listed.
Many of the early entries bear the names of Douglass Houghton (A.M. and M.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. '29), the first to be appointed Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in 1839, and of Silas Hamilton Douglass (A.M. hon. Vermont '47), who succeeded Houghton after his death. The name of Alexander Winchell (Wesleyan '47, LL.D. ibid. '67), Professor of Geology, Zoology, and Botany, occurs many times. One record book lists the mineral collection of Theodore N. Chase, with more than two hundred entries. The name Van Vechten appears repeatedly, especially in connection with minerals from California.
When Edward Henry Kraus (Syracuse '96, LL.D. ibid. '34, Ph.D. Munich '01) first came to the University in 1904 as Assistant Professor of Mineralogy, the mineral collections were in the basement of Tappan Hall, where the Mineralogy Department was housed. The six large cases in which the main collection was displayed were not new at that time. These same cases still contain the major part of the minerals which are on public display in Room 2071 of the Natural Science Building.
After 1900 there was a steady growth in the collections, including mineralogical, petrological, and crystallographic specimens. In addition to the general systematic collection, various special collections are worthy of mention. These include the Frederick S. Stearns Collection of Gems, given to the University in 1931-32, and valued at $10,000. This consists of both cut and uncut material. A part of it is on display with other gem material in a special case. The W. R. Candler Collection of Agates is on view in one of the second-floor corridor cases. Of particular interest are several hundred meteorites given over the years by