Vanackerite

Light yellow

For Georges Vanacker (1923-1992), a Belgian systematic collector. Georges was born in Staden, Belgium, on 12 June 1923. He was a very talented student, fluent in several languages, and mathematics was his favourite playground. His plans to study accounting were thwarted by the Second World War. During the war, Georges took a correspondence course in accounting at the 'Institut de Comptabilité Jules Baude' located in Brussels. Because of the ongoing war, he travelled to Brussels once: for his exams. Immediately after the war, Georges continued his studies, and in 1946 he received a Master's Degree summa cum laude.

At the age of 23, he bought a house in the City of Bruges, Belgium, where he lived for the rest of his life. He married to Dina Pollefeyt and started his own accountancy company. It was, in fact, his wife Dina, who sparked his interest in mineralogy. Dina focused on esthetic specimens, while Georges was more interested in building a systematic mineral collection.

Around 1960, when his collection reached about 300 specimens, Georges felt that his knowledge of mineralogy was insufficient, and he started intensively to learn about mineralogy. He was very keen on networking, and when he needed analyses or information, he frequented the researchers of various universities and research institutes, in particular, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. When in 1975 digital information technology emerged, he built a database on his mainframe computer to catalogue his specimens, long before personal computers became available to the collector.

Eventually, his collection consisted of 12,000 catalogued specimens and many thousands more, well documented but uncatalogued specimens. By 1990, he had accrued 2,856 of the 3,600 then known mineral species; nearly 80 %!

He purchased many specimens. And every year, he spent his entire vacation in quarries or mines, especially in Scandinavia. To be sure to get the best possible specimen for his collection, he always tried to buy a small lot instead of just one specimen. In the end, most of the time he kept almost everything. He had numerous contacts with quarry and mine owners worldwide, with mineral dealers, and with professional mineralogists. As an accountant, he kept a record of every single letter, telegram or other forms of written communication.

Around 1990 he distributed the esthetic specimens among his 3 children, and the complete systematic collection was donated to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. Georges died of a heart attack, on 11 July 1992.

ⓘ Tsumeb Mine (Ongopolo Mine), Tsumeb, Oshikoto Region, Namibia