Category:Boxes of Rocks

Staff of the Main Street Museum is often queried as to the derivation of the category "Boxes of Rocks".

This is understandable, as the majority of collecting and academic institutions use "Geology" terminology for their mineralogical collections. I was fortunate however, to have personal contact with Barbara and Brad Washburn in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And I recall asking Barbara Washburn about how she and her husband came about founding the Museum of Science in Boston. She told me that they wished to break away from the Victorian model of a museum of technology and science.

"When Brad went into the Museum," she said, "It was nothing but boxes of rocks—nothing but boxes of rocks!"

I immediately thought of the Hall of Minerals in the Peabody Museum at Harvard. Row upon row of glass and mahongany cases with acres of minerals solemnly displayed, dust left undisturbed. And I remember being fascinated by the concept. Little did I know that eventually, I would emulate this concept, and inaugurate a mineralogical collection here at the Main Street Museum under the heading, "Boxes of Rocks."

Thank you, Mrs. Washburn. —David F. Ford. 2009.