Oops! Mistake in last email . Dates for William Hunter's collection should be:
William Hunter's collection (assembled between ca. 1765 and his death in 1783)
Not 1865!
Clearly time to go home...
John
-----Original Message-----
From: The Geological Curator's Group mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Faithfull
Sent: 22 July 2016 16:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Historical collections relating to Neapolitan volcanoes
Hello
A quick Friday afternoon summary reply, as we're in the middle of a giant collections move, much collections material and archives are unavailable just now, and I'm off on holiday next week. (NB much of the info below is from memory, so there may be minor errors..)
We have a lot of 19th century Vesuvius material, some 20th, and at least some is likely to be 18th century.
William Hunter's collection (assembled between ca. 1865 and his death in 1783) is known to have included specimens sent by Sir William Hamilton, and Hunter had his own copy of Campi Phlegraei (http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/oct2007.html ). Hamilton's specimens are not explicitly identified within Hunter's collection today however. I note that one of the other replies to this enquiry mentions polished slabs from Hamilton - we do have some polished slabs from Hunter's collections which include volcanic rocks, so these might be well worth comparing with other Hamilton material to see if they match. However, I think Hunter may also have had mineral specimens from Vesuvius/Monte Somma which may have come from other sources. The bills and invoices of his purchases may be useful in tracking this.
We also got some Vesuvius lavas in 1816, from a William Rae Wilson, and later, one or more a large suites of material, with excellent old hand-written labels post-1828 (they include 1828 eruption specimens). Alas, this material is currently inaccessible, and likely to remain so for some while (months or longer..) but if you requested to look at it, this might be helpful in speeding up its transfer and unpacking (hint!).
Most of the Vesuvius material is not yet computerised at an individual level, but some specimens are (http://tinyurl.com/h96a98o ). Brief drawer-level descriptions of our wider holdings can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/h9qlcge - these are quick summaries, so dates etc may not be definitive.
Hope this is useful - let me know if you want to follow up any of this
John
Dr JW Faithfull
Curator (Mineralogy/Petrology)
The Hunterian
University of Glasgow
Gilbert Scott Building
Glasgow G12 8QQ
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +44(0)141 330 4213
Research outputs: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/view/author/8006.html
Website: www.glasgow.ac.uk/hunterian
What's On
Comic Invention (Admission £5/£3 concession) Hunterian Art Gallery, 18 March - 17 July 2016
William Hunter to Damien Hirst: The Dead teach the Living Hunterian Art Gallery, 25 March 2016 - 5 January 2017
Moments in History: William Hunter's British Medals Hunterian Art Gallery, 10 March 2016 - 29 January 2017
Ichthyosaurs
Hunterian Museum, 22 January - 18 September 2016
The Entire Collection cared for by The Hunterian is a Recognised Collection of National Significance to Scotland University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401
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