American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

The World Beneath Our Feet...Minerals (Exhibition)
birth: 1967 October 1
death: 1968 December 31
Exhibition. Opened October 1, 1967 and closed December 31, 1968. Located in Section 5, Floor 2 in the Corner Gallery at the American Museum of Natural History. The World Beneath Our Feet...Minerals featured 250 minerals from the Museum's collection arranged to demonstrate evolutionary sequence and was curated by D.M. Vincent Manson, Assistant Curator of the Department of Mineralogy.
Summary
The World Beneath Our Feet...Minerals featured 250 minerals from the Museum's collection arranged to demonstrate evolutionary sequence and was curated by D.M. Vincent Manson, Assistant Curator of the Department of Mineralogy. The exhibition was the Museum's contribution to the New York Cultural Showcase Festival, which celebrated the city's cultural institutions from October 1-15, 1967. Minimal text accompanied the specimens on view to emphasize the "dependency of beauty on diversity" and feeling over memorization of facts (1, p. 1). The exhibition was constructed in a circle with 34 panels representing processes in the evolutionary path of earth history arranged in the circle to which the minerals were attached. The panels were individually lighted with subtle gradations of color, suggesting the hot or cool conditions under which the specimens were formed (1, p. 2). The exhibition was designed by Yang/Gardner and Associates (2, p. 8) and many of the minerals were from the Museum's Morgan Hall of Minerals and Gems, which was closed at the time for renovations (1, p. 2).
Highlights (1, p. 1-3; 2, p. 8):
*16-foot-high abstract sculpture, designed by Yang/Gardner, representing arrangement of atoms most common in minerals. Programmed lighting illuminated spiraling tetrahedrons to demonstrate growth and development.
*Large specimens of petrified wood, meteorite, and stalagmite visitors could touch at the base
*Quartz crystals from the Herkimer County "diamonds" donated to the Museum by Clarence H. Van der Veer
This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.