Matthew A. Grossman Museum
| Title | Matthew A. Grossman Museum |
|---|---|
| Institution | Washington University |
| Description | The Earth and Planetary Sciences department is fortunate to have on the first floor of Scott Rudolph Hall the glass-enclosed Grossman Mineral Museum, curated by G. Robert Osburn. |
| Mineral display arrangement | Other One of the permanent displays is a captivating suite of minerals from around of the world, a gift from Scott Rudolph, who is internationally renowned for his personal mineral collection and also is the benefactor whose name our building bears. Among the other displays within the museum are large samples of crystals clustered according to their chemistry, such as the sulfide minerals from which we obtain so many of our metals and the halides, such as the mineral fluorite, from which we get the fluoride in our toothpaste. For the minimalist, there is a collection of “thumbnail” (-sized) mineral samples representing minerals of all different chemical types. There currently are special displays on meteorites and on “Radiation – Before We Knew Better.” From the hallway outside the museum one can see into a ceiling-high glass case containing large fossils, including remnants of tree trunks and the complete head of a mastodon. A long glass case along the other external side of the museum displays and identifies some of the common rocks that occur locally, as along our highways. Because Missouri is the lead-mining capital of the United States, there is also an extensive display of samples collected by our students and staff and those given to us by geologists at the Doe Run company whose underground mines we have toured over the years. |
| Items of specific note | The largest fossil in the building is the 12-foot crocodile on the first floor. It was collected some time in the 1800s by Gustav Hambach, a German immigrant who became head of the geology department in 1887. |
| Museum Address | 1 Brookings Drive Saint Louis Missouri United States |
| Contact email | EEPS@WUSTL.EDU |
| Website address | https://eeps.wustl.edu/matthew-grossman-museum |
