WMU Department of Geosciences

Lloyd J. Schmaltz Museum

In Rood Hall, there is an extensive Geologic Museum.  There are numerous examples of Minerals displayed in mineralogical categories.  UV minerals have an interactive display case that shines UV light on a select group of minerals that react and glow.   Along with the minerals, there are vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.  If you haven't taken a look at this resource, make sure to do so!

As a geoclub, we are going to help the department update the museum.  We will be taking photographs of this great collection and making them available online and also we will be cleaning the cases and making new name labels for the minerals. 

NEWS:

The Museum is clean!  The next step in the fall will be to put new uniform name tags on all of the minerals and fossils.  THANK YOU to everyone who helped, it looks great.

PAST CLEANINGS:

Tuesday June 8th
We met with Brian Bird.  Cleaned the last 3 cases and moved the shelves down so that when outreach programs from local schools come into the museum, the kids can see the shelves. 

        *  3 Educational cases in the hallway with the different crystal                systems, scratch plates and such are located were cleaned

Tuesday June 1st
We met with Brian Bird.  We ran out of time, but were still able to get a lot accomplished.

        *  End case with Geology Equipment cleaned and photographed

        *  5 hallway cases cleaned including Mastodon shelf

        *  Cleaned outside of cases again

Friday April 23rd
We met with Dr. Gillespie and Dr. Schmaltz as the cleaning continued. 

        *  2 Mineral Cases cleaned and photographed

        *  3 Fossil Cases cleaned and photographed

        *  New Geology Club case cleaned and t-shirts/department photo put up

        *  Cleaned outside of cases

Friday March 26th - Noon   

We met with Dr. Gillespie for the 2nd date of cleaning and cataloguing of the museum.  After 3 hours of work, we got the following accomplished:

    *  2 Mineral cases (Sulfides, Duncan Collection):  Cleaned  inside and            photographed each mineral

    *  3 Fossil Cases cleaned and photographed

    *  T-shirts put into the Geoclub case

    *  Met with Dr. Schmaltz

Friday Feb.27th - Noon   

We met with Brian Bird and started the cleaning and cataloguing of the museum.  After 4 hours of work, we got the following accomplished:

    *  4 Mineral cases (Native Elements, Sulfides, Carbonates, Silicates):
        cleaned  inside and photographed each mineral

    *  Got data to make new tags for the entire museum

    *  Vertebrate fossil case re-organized and cleaned

    *  New Geology Club space in case next to vertebrate fossils

    *  Cleaned outside of all cases 

    Thanks everyone who helped!

We will probably need 2 more visits to the museum to finish the cleaning.  This is something that we will be doing each year in hopes to keep the museum preserved and maintained.  If you are interested in participating in our efforts, please get into contact with us.

Last modified: 06/09/04  

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