Copenhagen Geological Museum

I was fortunate to visit Copenhagen in January 2016. Prior to my visit I did a little search on the net and through an article by Peter Megaw on the Friends of Minerals Forum (thank you Peter) I knew that I had to pay a visit to this museum. If it hadn't been for Peter's article I may not have noticed the museum in any of the travel brochures.

To the collector, this museum is a real little gem. I was thoroughly impressed.

Before you view the article, I apologise for the quality of some of the photos but I seemed to have had camera problems (or rather me, the user, forgot how to use some of the camera settings).

Apparently the Geological Museum is part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark and is also part of the University of Copenhagen. According to the museum's website "the exhibitions at the museum cover the Solar system, the evolution of life on Earth, volcanoes, minerals, and the geological evolution of Denmark and Greenland".

According to the museum's website, the collection has been going since 1772, so it has been around a while. Many of its silver specimens from Kongsberg date from 1777. While I did not see it, the museum's website also states that the oldest museum object in the Geological Museum is a 218kg silver specimen from Kongsberg in Norway dated 24th August 1666. So the museum has been going for quite some time.

I was staying near the Sydhavnen River and it was a relatively short walk (about 2kms) to the museum, which is located in the Botanic gardens. Copenhagen is flat, so walking everywhere was a joy, even in the cold (-4C to 3C).
The exterior of the museum is a bit like an old red brick palace.



In the front courtyard is a very large (15 ton) iron/nickel meteorite from Cape York, Greenland. It was found in 1963 and originally weighed in at 20.1 tons but was cut down for research and analysis so it's a little smaller now. When found, it was the 5th largest known meteorite in the world and is known as Agpalilik.



It's a shame it is sitting on such a crude steel pallet rather than on a more permanent stand, but I guess the stand makes it easier to move if necessary.



The museum's mineral collection is located on the first floor and is displayed in two small halls and a smaller room.
After climbing the marble stairs to the first floor, there was a small display case of Tourmalines from around the world:



On entering the first display area of the museum, my immediate reaction was that I was visiting the British Museum of Natural History. It was as if this was a smaller version of that in London. In fact, the display cases and the material lining the horizontal cases could easily have come direct from the same supplier to the London museum. Perhaps London got its idea from here.




The collection is essentially a systematic exhibition. The specimens are shown in over 60 horizontal showcases. According to the museum's website there are around 1700 specimens of more than 550 mineral species and set out according to the 1970s edition of Strunz' "Mineralogische Tabellen".







On the wall at the end of the first room is a case of outstanding Kongsberg Silvers, and I mean seriously outstanding. I was however, disappointed that one of their ropey Silvers was not on display - it is about 20cms in length and was obviously on loan for research or display elsewhere for some reason. It should sit in the bottom left of the Kongsberg case. If you take a look at the case you can see that there is space on the bottom left hand side for its return.

At the top of the case is a very stringy, knotted style Silver - nice.



Below is one of the Silvers.



Proceeding to the elements case. Here there were more Kongsberg specimens (they probably didn't make the grade for the main case!!!). The rams horn style Silver specimen in the corner is about 12cms across, very hefty indeed.



The next case had a selection of Gold specimens including a couple from Australia.



Next were some Stibnites including a nice small Japanese Stibnite.



I was happy to see a nice matrix Herodsfoot Bournonite.



Behind me at this point was a wall case of elements.



One mineral I have a passion for is Galena and there were a few nice ones here.





Here is a small English Fluorite. My judgement may be out but it was somewhere between 50 and 60cms.



An English Baryte stood out at about 18 to 20cms tall along with an Italian Baryte from Sardinia.



Two wall cases with large specimens.



A couple of nice Rhodochrosites and other carbonates.



Being from Australia I was happy to see us represented and not too shabbily either. Here are two cases which included some Cerussite and Crocoite.



Some more Barytes on display.



Another wall case display featuring various minerals.



Here are more views of some wall cases.


A view of cases in the adjoining room



Pyromorphite and friends



There was also a very nice blue Russian Topaz.



Regional areas of Denmark were also featured including Greenland.



I am also a fan of zeolites and associated minerals and there were a few cases with many Icelandic specimens which were very interesting. Here is a full case of various Zeolites from all over.



Some Leucites and Pollucites. Note the crystal models next to the specimens.





Australia was again represented here with a fine Stellerite, albeit mislabelled as Stilbite (the only piece I noticed that was misidentified).



Yet more zeolites featured.



Some interesting Beryls on display.



To my surprise they had a nice Broken Hill Rhodonite on Calcite.



There were some interesting educational cases including this one of Calcite demonstrating some of the properties of Calcite.



They had some nice educational display cases on Crystalography including this one with minerals and wooden crystal forms. I really liked this display.



And yet more crystallography.



A case demonstrating other characteristics and properties of minerals.



There are also several wall cases displaying specimens from Greenland Iceland and the Faroe Islands among others which are very interesting.



They have a small shop at the entrance which is well stocked with books and geological/mineral samples for sale. I even managed to purchase a Danish mineral book. One of the staff said "you know it's in Danish?" My response was "sure, but that's why I want it".

They even have a few mineral cards as giveaways (about playing card size.) The cards featured, Gold, Calcite, Opal, Crocoite, Quartz and Emerald (neat for kids young and old).

My only negative comments on the museum collection would be around the labelling. I always like to see neat, balanced uniform labels. While everything was adequately labelled, they varied in size and content. Perhaps they should engage a good Uni student or students to update the labels with a good label maker. They could also provide more English translations; But hey this is Denmark so I shouldn't be too picky.

Other than that small gripe, I was thoroughly impressed with this museum. It was a real surprise. The museum was intimate, friendly and informative with many extremely good quality specimens on display.

If I manage to get back to Copenhagen, I will have to try and plan to get permission to view specimens behind the scenes and to bring better camera equipment.

All I can say to all Mindaters, is that if you visit Copenhagen, you must make sure that you visit this museum. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

References
http://geologi.snm.ku.dk/english/collections/mineralsaml (January 2016)

This article is linked to the following museum: Natural History Museum of Denmark (Copenhagen)