Saturday, November 23, 2013

Where is the Arizona Mineral Collection?



Following the hostile takeover and abrupt closure and destruction of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum, many have wondered where the Arizona mineral collection is. They cannot be comforted by recent developments.

The AHS recently published a three page Annual Report. It contains two letters, a membership list, and two small financial pie charts. The letter from the Director contains the following paragraph.


Less controversial, but equally appealing,
are traveling displays of Arizona’s geologic
past, mining history, and significant mineral
collections, as well as components of the
centennial “100 Years ~ 100 Quilts” exhibit,
both of which have reached communities
in all corners of the state.


So, apparently the answer is that the mineral collection is being scattered across the state. This, combined with finding of recent Auditor General reports, is worrisome.  As reported in the 9/13/2003 blog post and on page 29 of the Performance Review cited in the 10/11/13 blog post, the AHS has inventory control issues. Some collections have not been audited for over 14 years.

Reference:
Arizona Historical Society 2013 Annual Report   http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/2013annualreport/

1 comment:

  1. The Arizona Historical Society is supposed to open up a Mineral exhibit in 2014 according to their website. So they steal the collection of a successful museum, were supposed to ,open a Centennial Museum, excuse me, a 5 "C"'s Museum...excuse me as Arizona Adventure Museum...and now they will open up a Mineral exhibit at their Papago park facility. Where does this make sense??
    I guess they are now an Arizona History/Mineral Museum?! What's next dinosaurs? Did Ann Woosley plan this or did she follow orders from the Governor? And what is supposed to happen to the old Mineral Museum building?? Use it for storage for archives?? What a pathetic waste and arrogance!

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