Worldwide collections

UK Collections

• British Geological Survey The BGS has an extensive petrological collection which is open for research and to donations. The collections deal primarily with the UK and have samples from many sites which can no longer be accessed. The BGS has offices in both England and Scotland. The website is extensive but easy to use.
• University of Bristol, Department of Earth Sciences - Geology Museum
  Primarily a reference and research collection, containing in the order of 100,000 specimens of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, rocks, minerals and gemstones from the UK and abroad, its content reflects the research and teaching activities of the department over the last 125 years. The petrology collection is essentially a teaching and reference collection, which also includes igneous and metamorphic rocks from classic areas (UK and foreign) arranged by region, an economic minerals and mines collection (foreign), and a stratigraphically arranged suite of UK sedimentary rocks; there have been few additions of petrological material to the collection during the last 20 years. Local material of particular note includes Jurassic ammonites, Carboniferous Limestone corals and brachiopods, Coal Measures plants, and minerals from Mendip and Cornwall; important collections derived from a wider geographical area include Mesozoic and Tertiary mammals, Devonian fish and invertebrates, Ordovician shelly faunas, and gemstones (Fermor Collection). For more information see the website: www.gly.bris.ac.uk/www/services/museum/museum.html
• Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter Geological Museum and Art Gallery
  The museum has extensive collections from all fields of geology, with many specimens on display. The museum is part of the University of Exeter and the website is also part of the main university site, which can make it difficult to locate.
• Cornucopia
  This is a new website dedicated to UK museum collections. It provides an easy search facility and gives brief details of the museums featured and their collections. A full site with over 2,000 collections will be launched.
• Lapworth Geological Museum
  The museum houses many collections which cover all areas of geology. The museum is part of Birmingham University and is a source of research material. The details on the website are sparse but contacts are given.
• Liverpool Museum
  With over one million specimens relating to archaeology, ethnology and natural and physical sciences, the museum covers many fields of interest. Currently the museum holds more than 120,000 geological specimens.
• Manchester Museum
  Part of Manchester University, the museum is primarily concerned with fossils although it also deals with rocks.
• The National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff
  The museum has an extensive petrology collection available for viewing and research. Contacts are given in the site. The Petrology Collection of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales consists of approximately 30,000 specimens, including 10,000 thin sections. Particular strengths include:
  Specimens acquired during mapping and research activity in Wales from late 19th century through to the present day - Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey are particularly well represented.
  A large collection of coal from former Welsh collieries
  Slate from quarries locations
  Welsh Building Stones
  Archeopetrology collection (<2000 specimens) of petrological material from archaeological excavations and ancient monuments.
  A standard Reference Rock Collection for the UK and many areas abroad
  Information for all specimens is held as an electronic database, and specimens are available for research/loan. For further details contact either jana.horak@nmgw.ac.uk (Acting Head of Section) or helen.kereby@nmgw.ac.uk (Acting Collection Manager) for further information.
• Oxford University Museum of Natural History
  The museum is concerned with both minerals and rocks. The rock collection has approximately 50,000 specimens, and is an international collection with specimens from around the world, including Greenland and the Atlantic Islands. A searchable database is now available from the following website: www.oum.ox.ac.uk/onlinedb/accrocks/acsearch.htm
• Royal Museum The Royal Museum currently holds over 10,000 rock specimens, 7,000 of which are on loan from the HM Geological Survey of Scotland. The remainder are primarily research collections, all from regions within Scotland.
• Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge
  The main petrology collection is the Harker Collection, named after Alfred Harker in recognition of his eminence as a petrologist and work in organising and cataloguing the first 42,000 items. This collection now has over 15,000 hand specimens and 25,000 thin sections of rocks from around the world, predominately igneous or metamorphic. Efforts are being made to computerise the catalogue; however, manual searching of collector and locality indexes is still the main method of finding material. In addition there is the Beagle Collection, which contains over 2,000 of the rock specimens gathered by Charles Darwin on his voyage. The museum is also responsible for roughly 50,000 samples of sediments, both lithified and unconsolidated. Finally, there is the Watson Building Stone Collection, with roughly 2,500 examples of building and decorative stones. These are mainly British but there also specimens from elsewhere in Europe, North America, Africa and India. For more information about the collections see the website: www.sedgwickmuseum.org
• School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton
  An extensive collection of rocks, minerals and fossils used for teaching and academic research. For more information see the website: www.soc.soton.ac.uk/soes/resources/. Links to other sites: West's Geology Directory.
• Ulster Museum
  The site gives very few details but museum collections are available for viewing by appointment with the relevant department.

European petrological collections

• Czech Geological Survey (Cesky geologicky ustav)
  Although there are no details of collections within the site, the CGS does provide many useful site links to geological surveys worldwide. The site also has a live webcam on Etna.
• Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
  This site is almost entirely in French with no sign of an English version in development. However, if your French is up to it, this may be a useful site to explore.
• Natural History Museum, Berne (NMBE)
  With more than 10,000 specimens in an ever-increasing collection this museum is a great research resource. The site is very detailed and easy to use.
• Vernadsky Geological Museum (Moscow)
  This site is very basic but the museum does house some very good rock collections and it is possible to contact the museum for more information.

North American petrological collections

• American Museum of Natural History
  The museum has a wide-ranging rock collections with collections including: Layered Mafic Intrusions, Kimberlites, Mantle Xenoliths, Lower Crustal Rocks, Volcanics and Carbonatites. The collections are primarily for research and parts are available for loan.
• Birdnet: The Ornithological Information Source
  Although this is an ornithological site the links it provides are useful to the geologist as well, as it lists many natural history sites around the world. The site is run from the Smithsonian Institution's server.
• Chicago Academy of Sciences
  Details on the site are brief but the academy does have more than 20,000 mineralogy specimens, many collected in the nineteenth century.
• Illinois State Museum
  Again details on the site are brief but the museum has over 6,700 specimens in its rocks and minerals collection.
• International Archive of Economic Geology/The Anaconda Collection
  The International Archive of Economic Geology is a department of the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. The IAEG has collections in the areas of geology, economic geology, mining and mineral prospecting, petroleum geology, and the history of earth science. The Anaconda Collection contains over 1.8 million documents and includes data from 110 countries worldwide.
• Mineralogical and Geological Museum (Harvard University)
  This collection is mostly the result of the fieldwork of Harvard students and academics and is worldwide in its range.
• Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University)
  The museum houses over 35,000 specimens from all over the world within its mineralogy section, including many specimens from sites which either no longer exist or are inaccessible.
• National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
  The collection comprises exclusively of the national rock and ore collections of the USA which includes over 235,000 inventoried specimens.
• The University of Georgia Museum of Natural History
  The museum has extensive and worldwide rock and mineral collections comprising more than 20,000 specimens.

Tips

Not all links arrive at the collection direct, some will only go to a home page, so utilise the site's search facilities.

When surfing the Web, be aware of time zones. Some US servers will not respond in the UK afternoon due to excessive demand as America comes online.

This is not a definitive guide, and we have probably missed many good sites. Please keep looking and if you find a site which looks good we will look them up.

Sites such as Birdnet and Cornucopia can provide excellent jump-off points (essentially these are links sites with varying amounts of info on the sites to which they provide links).

Sites in other countries may use different terminology, especially if the country speaks a variant of English such as the USA - be inventive!