WJUNE 01

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Update: June 19, 2001

Welcome to the new website for the Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence! On these pages you will find information on who we are (why a museum of fluorescence?), how to get here, and what we have to show you, plus specimen photographs, background information on the nature of fluorescence, and more.

This is an introductory site, a sampler of what we hope to provide in the future. We expect the site content to grow with time and welcome your suggestions on what to include. The Warren Museum is growing rapidly, as you will find by reading on.



	Recently acquired calcite specimen from Crystal Springs #2 quarry, Lecanto, Florida. Shown under longwave ultraviolet light. Photo by Maureen Verbeek.

Reitenbaugh Collection

Museum staff continue to process the voluminous collection of Marian and William Reitenbaugh of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. This collection was acquired in February and totaled about 6,500 pounds of material, much of it fluorescent. The museum has added substantially to its teaching, reference, and display collections as a result of this acquisition. Among the display items are a large and clean esperite-willemite specimen from Franklin, New Jersey; a very fine, bright red-fluorescent mass of manganaxinite from the same locality; several large specimens rich in fluorescent pargasite from the Lime Crest quarry near Sparta, New Jersey; and well crystallized specimens of witherite from the Minerva mine, Cave-in-Rock district, Illinois.

Sebela Collection

In June museum staff selected about three flats of fluorescent specimens from the extensive general collection of Al Sebela of West Springfield, Massachusetts. The Sebela collection was rich in unusual species and minerals from old localities in central and eastern Europe. Our acquisitions from this collection are now being added to the reference collection.

Calcite Specimen

Also in June the museum purchased a large (7" x 6"; 18 x 15 cm) calcite crystal group from the Crystal Springs #2 quarry, Lecanto, Florida. This specimen (see photo above) is one of the finest recovered from a 1985 find and is as attractive in daylight as it is under UV light.

Collections Database

Don Halterman is about midway through development of a comprehensive collections database for the museum's collections of minerals, rocks, and ores. The database will store the usual information on mineral or rock name, locality, and description, as well as fields for specimen significance (why is this specimen being retained in the collection?), history, means of identification, and detailed luminescence characteristics.

UV Specimen Study Facility

Don Halterman has begun construction of a facility to examine fluorescent specimens under a bank of four ultraviolet lamps (shortwave, midrange, and two different wavelengths of longwave UV). This facility will utilize a rolling platform upon which are mounted the four lamps, any one of which can be centered over an outlet port to beam light on the specimen beneath. The person viewing the specimens will be seated in front of the inspection bay, with a rack of shelves to the left for holding flats of specimens and a computer to the right for recording observations. Early plans call for making this facility available to others for a nominal hourly fee.