Mineral collection labels

When St Aubyn’s mineral collection was transferred to Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in 1924, it arrived in a series of cabinets which had several drawers. It appears that these drawers were used as a type of catalogue in order to arrange the collection correctly, and therefore they are a very important tool in helping us understand the collection.

Unfortunately, some of the old cabinets were damaged and some of the drawers had been broken in the past. We are trying to conserve the paper labels on these drawers and match them up with the correct specimens. The images below show how the information about the collection was kept.

Drawer labels

Above is an example of the label from the back panel of a drawer. This label shows the classification of the mineral type.

Above are labels from one of the side panels of the drawers. These refer to the individual specimens and include a numbering system. It is these labels that show us where the minerals were collected.

Specimen labels

This type of label may have been part of the Count de Bournon’s cataloguing system. The museum is currently undertaking research in order to discover the true meaning behind these labels.

These labels are frequently seen on specimens belonging to the St Aubyn collection and these are linked to the labels on the drawers. The classification used in these labels is believed to be the Allan system.

The above images show another two labels that have been found on some of the St Aubyn minerals, but we do not know how they relate to the collection. If you think that you may have seen some of these labels, or have any information regarding the collection, please contact the Natural History Project Assistant on 01752 304774.

You can find out more about Sir John St. Aubyn, or return to the natural history collections page for information on the other collections we hold.

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