George Frederick Kunz
George Frederick Kunz (born September 29, 1856 in New York City , † June 29, 1932 ibid) was an American mineralogist , gemologist and mineral collector.
Kunz grew up in Hoboken and began collecting minerals as a teenager and sold his first collection of over 4,000 copies for $ 400 to the University of Minnesota (he later sold several of his own collections). He graduated from Cooper Union College with a bachelor's degree in 1872, then dropped out, but self-taught extensive knowledge of minerals and gemstones, so he was hired by Tiffany, where he became vice president in 1888. Around the same time, Appleton's Cyclopedia named him the premier American gemstone expert, consulted nationwide and authoring the Gemstones sections in the official annual Mineral Resources of the United States report . He traveled extensively, organizing the mineral and mining exhibitions of the US delegation to international exhibitions in Paris in 1889, Kimberley in 1892, Chicago in 1893, Atlanta in 1895, Paris in 1900 and St. Louis in 1904. He lived in New York as a private scholar and expert on gemstones. He died of a brain hemorrhage in the hospital.
He was in many scientific societies, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the New York Academy of Sciences (of which he was temporarily vice-president), the New York Mineralogical Club (which he co-founded in 1886 and of which he was president), the Mineral Society of America and Geological Society of America, the American Chemical Society, the Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, of which he was temporarily vice-president. As a proponent of the metric system, he was president of the American Metric Association. Kunz was also a leader in the international implementation of the weight unit carat for gemstones. He was the founder and director of the Museum of the Peaceful Arts in 1913 and special agent of the US Geological Survey from 1883 to 1909. From 1904 to 1918 he was research curator for gemstones at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and compiled the Morgan-Tiffany collection of gemstones for the American Museum of Natural History. In 1892/93 he examined the American pearl stocks for the fisheries authorities.
He wrote over 300 scientific articles and several books.
The mineral kunzite was named after him by Charles Baskerville , who first described it, which Kunz himself first found and recognized as a new type of mineral (found in Pala, San Diego County ). He received an honorary master's degree from Columbia University and an honorary doctorate from Marburg University (1903), which was revoked from him in 1920, and from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois (1907). In 1927 he became a member of the Leopoldina . He received the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun , was knight of the Legion of Honor and the Norwegian Order of St. Olaf and honorary member of the Chambre Syndicale Pierres Precieuses in Paris.
His library of valuable and rare books on mineralogy and gemology (one of the best in the world at the time) is with the US Geological Survey.
He was married twice. The first marriage with Sophia Hanforth (marriage 1879) ended with her death in 1912. In 1923 he married the aviator Opal Logan Giberson, who had the marriage annulled, but kept the house for him until his death.
Fonts
- Early Artistic Watches. In: The monthly Illustrator. Volume 11, 1895, pp. 313-320.
- with Charles Hugh Stevenson: The Book of the Pearl: The History, Art, Science and Industry of the Queen of Gems, New York: The Century Co., 1908. Archive
- Curious Lore of Precious Stones, Philadelphia: Lippincott 1913, Archives
- Gems and Precious Stones of North America, New York: The Scientific Publ. Company 1890, 2nd edition 1892
- Jewelers' Materials, and Ornamental Stones of California, Bulletin of the California State Mining Bureau 37, 1905
- History of the Gems Found in North Carolina, Raleigh 1907
- Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archeology, and in Science, Garden City: Doubleday 1916
- The Magic of Jewels and Charms. Philadelphia: Lippincott 1915
- Natal Stones; Sentiments and Superstitions Associated with Precious Stones, 20th edition, New York: Tiffany 1909
- Rings for the Finger, from the Earliest Known Times to the Present, Philadelphia: Lippincott 1917
- Shakespeare and Precious Stones, Treating of the Known References of Precious Stones in Shakespeare's Works, Lippincott 1916
- The Spanish Missions in California, Albany 1912
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Member entry by George F. Kunz at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on November 17, 2015.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kunz, George Frederick |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American mineralogist, gemologist, and mineral collector |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 29, 1856 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 29, 1932 |
| Place of death | New York City |