The Richard Barstow mineral collection

"Looking at the minerals on display in the museum gave me great pleasure, but the highlight was to be able to see and handle lots more Barstow specimens in the store, many of them the best of their kind."
Terence Pendred, London

Richard or Dick Barstow (a mineral dealer living in East Cornwall) collected the majority of this collection from the mines and quarries in Devon and Cornwall. With over one thousand specimens of display quality, there are about 200 species represented, including some important rarities.

The collection also includes a comprehensive library of Cassiterite (tin ore) specimens from Cornish and Devon mines, which, together with the Serjeant collection of Cassiterite specimens, forms an important research collection of South West tin minerals.

Many of the classic mining localities represented in the collection are now defunct and closed, thus making the material even more valuable as a reference and research collection.

During his life, Dick Barstow donated material to Plymouth Museum from 1973 until his untimely death in 1982 at the age of 35. The museum purchased a large proportion of his remaining estate in 1986 after public fund-raising for £76,000.

You can now browse and search the Barstow Collection online, by mineral name.

You can find out more about Richard William Barstow, or return to the Natural History collections page for information on the other collections we hold.