Coming Soon: NY-NJ Show and beyond
Last Updated: 31st Mar 2013By Jolyon Ralph
The NY/NJ Show and Mindat.org's Tour of the North East US
(or at least part of it)
This coming month, Katya and I will be embarking on our first major trip to the Eastern US.
I must thank Lowell Carhart at Eons Expos, organizers of the NY/NJ Mineral Show - who are covering the cost of my flight and our hotel during the show visit.
First stop will be the New York/New Jersey Mineral Show at the NJ Expo Center, April 12-14th. We'll be arriving sometime in the afternoon of the 12th (a little late) directly after flying in from the UK.
Last year the show was run in the smaller Meadowlands Expo Center. This year the show is 30 minutes further south in a much bigger venue. It aims to become the biggest mineral & gem show on the east coast.
Last year's show. The new show is in a venue 2.5x this size.
Mindat.org will have a small booth, position 801 in the Fine Minerals gallery. We'll be there late on Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday, so if you're coming to the show please pop by and say hello. We'll be demonstrating mindat.org and gemdat.org, and we may have some of our fabulous mindat.org pins available too.
The floorplan for the show gives you an idea of the scale of the event
Monday 15th April - We will be joining mindat.org manager Alfredo Petrov for a trip to Sterling Hill and Franklin (the first time I have visited these famous deposits).
Tuesday/Wednesday 16th/17th April - Visit to New York City, including a stop to see the mineral collections of the American Museum of Natural History.
Thursday 18th April - drive to Rochester, NY, for the 40th Rochester Mineralogical Symposium. The symposium runs from Thursday until Sunday morning.
The Rochester Symposium is held at the Radisson Hotel Rochester Airport
The late Mick Cooper presenting at Rochester in 2008 *Please see footnote*
The last time I visited the Symposium was in 2009.. Please look at that article if you haven't been to the symposium before as it gives a good idea about how it works and what is to be found there.
The evening activities at the Rochester Symposium are the stuff of legend.
Sunday 21st April we will do a quick morning visit to Niagara falls (sadly we only have time to see it from the US side), and then turn around and speed south to get to Washington DC by early evening, where we'll meet up with mindat.org regular Robert Simonoff.
Monday 22nd April and Tuesday 23rd April we'll spend in Washington DC, including a visit to the mineral collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Finally, on the afternoon of 23rd April, we'll drive back to Newark to get the redeye flight back to London Heathrow, and an early bus ride home.
Again, thank you so much to the NY/NJ Mineral Show for making this possible.
*footnote*
Mick Cooper, who sadly died in 2008 just a few months after giving this presentation, was talking about his book, 'Robbing the Sparry Garniture', a 200 year history of British mineral dealers. This book, which reads in parts like a detective story, detailing the incredible characters of the time and their work in obtaining, and selling, the minerals now treasured in museums and private collections alike. It also is an important reference for people researching old dealer labels you may find with 19th century specimens.
Mick spent many, many years researching this work, a true triumph, which is why I find it distressing and shocking that it has not sold better than it should, and the 358 page book is now only $10 (presumably plus shipping) from the Mineralogical Record bookshop.
If you have never seen this book please just trust me and order it. You'll not regret it. Note we are not getting paid anything for this promotion, I just want to see Mick's fine work appreciated properly.
The book is available here
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