Creating the first digital archive of Washington and Lee University’s mineral collection

Session: 37th Annual Undergraduate Research Exhibition Sponsored by Sigma Gamma Epsilon (Posters)

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Washington and Lee University houses a world class collection of rocks and minerals, much of which had remained publicly inaccessible and undocumented. For minerals both on and off display belonging to the Funkhouser Collection, Ward’s Natural Science Collection, Brooks Collection, and other donations, there is a crucial lack of understanding regarding each mineral’s (1) historical and geological origin, (2) scientific significance, and (3) role in Washington and Lee’s history. This past summer, we created the first digital archive of W&L’s mineral collection. Manual cataloging was combined with mineralogical observation and analysis to produce an accessible and educationally useful database which will be hosted on Omeka, a web-based archival platform. Laboratory techniques including thin section analysis, photogrammetry, and scanning electron microscopy were used to enhance classification, visualization, and understanding of select minerals. Our archival process revealed new insights, highlighted in three case studies. In our first case study, we petrographically analyzed uncatalogued thin sections loaned from the University of Oxford to W&L in 1998. These thin sections were sourced from the Isle of Rum, gathered by famed Rum geologist Ansel Dunham in 1960. These analyses shed light on the island’s geology, while providing a reference resource for future generations of W&L students. In our second case study, we used geological and catalogue information from each sample to highlight the geographic origin of individual minerals, with the goal of connecting the archive users to the communities each sample was sourced from. Our website will feature these complex but rich histories, with a focus on central and southern Africa, illustrating the journey of each mineral from the mine to our displays. In our final case study, we explored the comparative mineralogy of malachite and azurite samples from Glades, Virginia, and Bisbee, Arizona, exploring each mine’s respective copper mineralization processes. This work will help us understand the past and future of copper mining in Virginia. Overall, our work not only improves the collection’s accessibility for educators but also establishes a foundation for further research. We hope this digital collection will be a tool helping to expand geoscience education across the W&L community and the wider Shenandoah Valley.