UW Geology Museum Hosts Special Mineral Exhibit

The famed mineral collection of William W. Jefferis, 19th-century banker and prominent amateur mineralogist, will be the focus of a special exhibit this month at the UW-Madison Geology Museum.

On loan from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, the Jefferis collection contains exceptional and colorful specimens from around the globe and is the foundation of the Carnegie Museum’s world-famous mineral collection.

Included is an iridescent, hollow Smithsonite formation that owes its existence to the silver mines of ancient Laurion in classical Greece. When the mines that enriched the contemporaries of Plato and Socrates were abandoned, they soon filled with water and the square wooden beams that supported the mine workings were gradually encrusted with deposits of Smithsonite that precipitated out of the mineral-laden water. As the centuries past, the wooden posts slowly rotted away, leaving the hollow Smithsonite specimens.

The Jefferis collection will be on display throughout October at the museum in Weeks Hall, 1215 W. Dayton St. Admission to the museum is free and hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.