ROBERT B. FERGUSON MUSEUM OF MINERALOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA, CANADA: A HIDDEN TREASURE
Chakhmouradian A.R. and Reguir E.P.
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
The Museum of Mineralogy was formally established at the Department of Geological Sciences in 1971, and later renamed in honor of Professor (now Emeritus) Robert Bury Ferguson. Professor Ferguson was instrumental to the establishment of the Museum, and led the mineralogical and crystallographic research at our Department through three decades of rapid growth to its present level of excellence recognized far beyond Canada’s borders. Professor Emeritus R.B. Ferguson is one of very few individuals who have been commemorated in the names of both a new mineral species (bobfergusonite, 1984) and a museum (1990).
The history of our Museum dates back to a collection of some 1,100 mineral and rock specimens left to the University of Manitoba by Joseph Winthrop Spencer (1851-1921). Spencer was a well-traveled geologist with broad interests, but best known for his work on the evolution of Niagara Falls under the Geological Survey of Canada. Since its inception in 1918, the Museum
collection has grown almost seven-fold, principally through private donations, purchases, and addition of specimens brought back by our “resident” mineralogists and students from their field trips. Most of these field acquisitions were originally collected for research and, once their scientific purpose had been fulfilled, catalogued and deposited in the Museum. Specimens
in this category have come from as far north as the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories to as far south as Argentina. Purchases and donations account for the majority of showy specimens bound to catch your eye when you stroll past the mineral displays in the Cretaceous Menagerie. Many of these “eye-candies” were donated, others were bought at the
international mineral shows in Tucson (Arizona) and Denver (Colorado). A small number of specimens in our collection have been bartered for Canadian “classics”, like gypsum rosettes from the Red River floodway or Thunder Bay amethyst.
About 20% of some 7,500 mineral specimens in the Museum collection are exhibited in the hallway of Wallace Building on the Fort Garry campus (Winnipeg, Canada). They are arranged systematically from the most chemically and structurally simple to progressively more complex. A few dozen attractive specimens are displayed in the Ed Leith Cretaceous Menagerie, also in
Wallace Building. In addition to the mineral specimens, the cabinets in the hallway and Menagerie contain all sorts of useful information on the chemical composition, crystallography, occurrence, and industrial applications of minerals. In addition to the systematic collection of minerals totaling well over a thousand mineral species, the Museum is home to two thematic rock
collections (“Granitic Pegmatites and their Mineral Parageneses”, and “Alkaline Rocks, Kimberlites and Carbonatites”) and a small collection of gems. The collection of pegmatite samples is a legacy of the renowned pe
gmatite researcher Petr Èerný who, assisted by his many students and collaborators, has put it together over the past three decades. Petr and his wife Iva made a tremendous contribution to the expansion and promotion of the Museum in the 1970-90’s.Do not forget to include a visit to our Museum in your itinerary the next time you are in Winnipeg!