A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum

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A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum
Thomas D Shaffner Hall.jpg
Thomas D Shaffner Hall, home to the museum as of 2011
A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum
Established1902 (1902)
Location Houghton, Michigan
Coordinates 47°06′39″N88°33′09″W / 47.1108°N 88.5526°W / 47.1108; -88.5526
Type Museum
DirectorJohn A. Jaszczak
CuratorJohn A. Jaszczak
OwnerMichigan Technological University
Website www.museum.mtu.edu

The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum, currently located on the campus of Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, is the official mineral museum of the state of Michigan and is a heritage site of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. [1] The museum is named for professor Arthur Edmund Seaman, who worked at Michigan Tech in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was the museum's curator from 1928 until 1937. [2]

Contents

The mineral collection was established in the 19th century, and by 1890 numbered 27,000 specimens. [2] The museum currently houses over 36,000 specimens from around the world. [1] Many of these specimens are native generally to Michigan, and more specifically to the Lake Superior region. The Copper Pavilion just outside is home to the Guinness World Record holder for largest boulder of copper weighing 19 tons and pulled from the bottom of Lake Superior. [3]

History

The Quincy Mine machine shop (seen in 2018 with its repaired roof) which was bought in 2005 for the museum Quincy Mine Machine Shop 2018.jpg
The Quincy Mine machine shop (seen in 2018 with its repaired roof) which was bought in 2005 for the museum
Portrait of Douglass Houghton in the museum A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum portrait of Douglass Houghton.jpg
Portrait of Douglass Houghton in the museum
Silver-copper mineral specimen from Wolverine Mine, Houghton County, Michigan, formerly in the Seaman Museum collections. Size: 5.6 x 2.8 x 3.2 cm. Copper-Silver-hbru-03b.jpg
Silver-copper mineral specimen from Wolverine Mine, Houghton County, Michigan, formerly in the Seaman Museum collections. Size: 5.6 x 2.8 x 3.2 cm.
Large display of sheet copper from the White Pine mine at the museum entrance A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum copper display.jpg
Large display of sheet copper from the White Pine mine at the museum entrance

The mineral museum first became a reality in 1902, when it was set up in the former Qualitative Laboratory room in Hubbell Hall [2] on Michigan Tech's campus. In 1908, a separate building (which would later become Tech's Administration Building) was constructed for the museum. [2] The museum fully occupied the second floor of the building. In 1931, the museum was moved to Hotchkiss Hall. [2] [4] The museum was renamed the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum in 1932. [5]

On June 17, 1976 the museum moved to the fifth floor of the Electrical Energy Resource Center at Michigan Tech, [6] built on the site of Hotchkiss Hall. The museum was designated the "official Mineralogical Museum of Michigan" in 1990 by the Michigan Legislature. [7]

In 2005, Michigan Tech purchased the blacksmith shop and machine shop buildings at the Quincy Mine site, with the intent of moving the museum there. [8] [9] The roof of the machine shop was replaced, but Tech decided instead to build a new building, and sold the buildings back to the Quincy Mine Hoist Association. [9] In 2011, the museum moved to the new [10] Thomas D Shaffner Hall, across from the Advanced Technology Development Complex. It is named for Thomas Shaffner, a Michigan Tech alumnus who donated $1 million for the new museum. [11] Since 2015 under the Michigan Mineral Alliance, the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum also curates and co-owns the University of Michigan mineral collection. [12]

Curators

Source: [2]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Technological University</span> Public university in Houghton, Michigan, U.S.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, United States, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Houghton, Michigan</span> City in Michigan, United States

Houghton is the largest city and county seat of Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Houghton is the largest city in the Copper Country region. It is the fifth-largest city in the Upper Peninsula, with a population of 8,386 at the 2020 census. Houghton is the principal city of the Houghton micropolitan area, which includes all of Houghton and Keweenaw counties. Houghton lies upon the Keweenaw Waterway, a partly natural, partly artificial waterway connecting at both ends to Lake Superior. Across the waterway from Houghton lies the city of Hancock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper Island</span> Northern part of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hancock, Michigan</span> City in Michigan, United States

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The Keweenaw Peninsula is a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. Part of the greater landmass of the Upper Peninsula, the Keweenaw Peninsula projects about 65 miles (105 km) northeasterly into Lake Superior, forming Keweenaw Bay. The peninsula is part of Michigan's Copper Country region, as the region was home to the first major copper mining boom in the United States. Copper mining was active in this region from the 1840s to the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper Country</span> Region in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, US

The Copper Country is an area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States, including Keweenaw County, Michigan, Houghton, Baraga and Ontonagon counties as well as part of Marquette County. The area is so named as copper mining was prevalent there from 1845 until the late 1960s, with one mine continuing through 1995. In its heyday in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the area was the world's greatest producer of copper.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keweenaw National Historical Park</span> U.S. national historical park in Michigan

Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a federal-local cooperative park made up of two primary units, the Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit, and almost two dozen cooperating "Heritage Sites" located on federal, state, and privately owned land in and around the Keweenaw Peninsula. The National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres (690 ha) in the Calumet and Quincy Units. Units are located in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places listings in Houghton County, Michigan</span>

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Houghton County, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seamanite</span>

Seamanite, named for discoverer Arthur E. Seaman, is a rare manganese boron phosphate mineral with formula Mn3[B(OH)4](PO4)(OH)2. The yellow to pink mineral occurs as small, needle-shaped crystals. It was first discovered in 1917 from a mine in Iron County, Michigan, United States and identified in 1930. As of 2012, seamanite is known from four sites in Michigan and South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper mining in Michigan</span> Important industry in the 19th and 20th centuries

In Michigan, copper mining became an important industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its rise marked the start of copper mining as a major industry in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonesuch Mine</span>

The Nonesuch Mine is an abandoned copper mine and small ghost town in the southeast corner of the Porcupine Mountains State Park in Carp Lake Township, Ontonagon County, near Silver City, Michigan, United States. The area was given its name soon after Ed Less discovered the Nonesuch vein of copper on the Little Iron River in 1865. The name refers to the occurrence of the copper in sandstone: "nonesuch" ore existed elsewhere in the Copper Country.

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Arthur Edmund Seaman was a professor at the Michigan College of Mines and curator of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum which bears his name.

Georgerobinsonite, named for George Willard Robinson, is a lead chromate mineral with formula Pb4(CrO4)2(OH)2FCl. It exhibits very small, transparent crystals with a bright orange-red color. It was obtained from the Mammoth–St. Anthony Mine in Arizona in the 1940s and identified in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramelaconite</span> Oxide mineral

Paramelaconite is a rare, black-colored copper(I,II) oxide mineral with formula CuI
2CuII
2O3 (or Cu4O3). It was discovered in the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona, about 1890. It was described in 1892 and more fully in 1941. Its name is derived from the Greek word for "near" and the similar mineral melaconite, now known as tenorite.

Joseph (Joe) Anthony Mandarino OC, FRSC was an American-Canadian mineralogist and crystallographer.

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References

  1. 1 2 "New Seaman Mineral Museum Dedicated". AE Seaman Mineral Museum. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "History". A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Lake and Float Copper | A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum". museum.mtu.edu. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Vast Mineral Collection at Tech". The Daily Mining Gazette. Houghton, MI. February 4, 1987 – via Seaman Museum Vertical File, Michigan Tech Archives.[ full citation needed ]
  5. ↑ "Seaman Mineral Museum". Michigan Technological University. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  6. ↑ "From Farm Boy to World Energy Leader Walker Cisler to Give Dedication Address at MTU". Michigan Tech Today. June 15, 1976 – via EERC Vertical File, Michigan Tech Archives.[ full citation needed ]
  7. ↑ "A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum". Pure Michigan. Archived from the original on February 7, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Board OK's Land Purchase for Museum". TechAlum News. October 3, 2005. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Hauglie, Kurt (June 19, 2015). "Historic buildings seek use". The Daily Mining Gazette. Houghton, MI. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
  10. ↑ "A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum Complex". AE Seaman Museum. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  11. ↑ Creager, Ellen (January 8, 2012). "You haven't lived here until ... you've visited the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum at Michigan Tech". Detroit Free Press . Archived from the original on July 23, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  12. ↑ Bornhorst, Theodore J.; Poulsen, Christopher J. (September 3, 2015). "Michigan Mineral Alliance". Rocks & Minerals. 90 (5): 450–453. Bibcode:2015RoMin..90..450B. doi:10.1080/00357529.2015.1059093. ISSN   0035-7529.
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