GALLERY | MEZZANINE

Minerals Gallery

Uncover the hidden stories and histories of minerals in the Museum’s collections. 

In the current display, Minerals: Sustainability and Hidden Stories, the history of Black and Indigenous peoples, and the role of empire in museum natural history collections is largely unknown or ignored. Archival images are used in a powerful way, telling stories of who discovered our specimens. The images are from South Africa in the early 1900s and show the miners working at the time our gold specimen was dug out of the ground. We have never told these stories before.  

A close-up of a large rock with an emerald gemstone on top, placed on a black display stand. In the background, there is a newspaper or magazine page with a photograph of people working in a large area of open, excavated dirt with earthen walls, part of a diamond mining operation in Sierra Leone.

A DISPLAY IN THE MINERALS GALLERY, LOOKING AT DIAMOND MINING.