General geology collection

The General Geology collection is the result of the Muséum’s Geology Chair activities beginning in 1793. It has been largely enriched by numerous scientific expeditions. The collection is made of more than 500,000 specimens of rocks, minerals, fossils, and drill cores, as well as sample sets representing important stratigraphic and paleo-ecological sequences, including French stratotypes (Turonian, Lutetian). These are stored and preserved in 12 specimen collections spread across three different buildings, including the Historical Geology and Mineralogy Gallery. This gallery was the first gallery built in France for the storage and preservation of natural collections. It was first open to the public in 1841.

Presentation/History

Initially started by B. Faujas de Saint Fond, founder of the Muséum’s Geology department and the first professor of the Geology chair in 1793, the collection was considerably enriched by his successor P.L.A. Cordier. During this period the collection then grew from about 1,500 to over 200,000 specimens of minerals, fossils and sedimentary, metamorphic and magmatic rocks. This diversity reflects the main concerns of geology during that period, based on a comprehensive inventory of the diversity of the soil and subsoil, and the first attempts to classify these materials. After Cordier, the successors (G.A. Daubrée and S. Meunier) continued in the same direction, adding the first meteorite specimens to the collection and thus laying the foundations for the Muséum’s current meteorite collection.

Naturalist Expeditions of the 19th, 20th centuries contributed significantly to the collection. Among others, we store in this collection specimens from the Astrolabe (Jules Dumont d’Urville), the La Recherche (Joseph Paul Gaimard), the Uranie (Louis de Freycinet), the Coquille (Louis Isidore Duperrey), the Favorite (Charles René Augustin Léclancher ), Le Français et le Pourquoi pas ? (Jean-Baptiste Charcot), Quest – expedition Shakleton-Rowett (Sir Ernest Shakleton).

In 1920, P. Lemoine, reorganized the collections, and definitively established the laboratory’s focus on the study of sedimentary rocks (stratigraphic collections). The meteorite collection, as well as many magmatic and metamorphic rock specimens, which formed the basis for the Muséum’s current igneous and metamorphic rock collection, were entrusted to the Muséum’s mineralogy laboratory during this refounding period.

Research

This collection is representative of the history of Geology at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and more generally of contemporary history (collections derived from the first scientific expeditions of the 19th century, collections representative of the geology of the former French colonies).

It still grows especially through new acquisitions related to primitive Earth thematics. All these samples may be consulted upon request.

Contact

Pierre Sans-Jofre
conservation officer for the General Geological collection 

Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, IMPMC
61 rue Buffon, bureau 203, 75005 Paris

pierre.sans-jofre [@] mnhn.fr

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