Monday Museum #1: Mineral Exhibits at VSEGEI

For the next few weeks I am going to test a new feature. Each Monday, from my stack of photographs of a variety of museums, both famous and obscure,  I will try to present images of a single exhibit. This week, I am starting with an exhibit that is at once obscure and fabulous: the minerals at the Acad. F.N. Chernyshev Central Scientific Geological and Prospecting Museum, A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute in St. Petersburg (VSEGEI). Over the decades, VSEGEI gathered some of the finest mineral specimens from across the USSR. Anyone interested in rocks, fossils, and particularly minerals, could easily spend hours wandering through this delightful traditional museum, located on one of the upper floors of the research institute.

A monstrous beryl crystal

This nugget is a model, according to the label. However, many of the other wonderful pieces in the gold case (below) appear to be genuine.

So many exhibits, so little time! I will post some images of the fossil exhibits at a later date.