The museum opened in 1969 as the Geology Museum. In 2003, when the Department of Geology became the Department of Geosciences, the title was changed to the Museum of Geosciences. The museum’s collection has increased its focus on vertebrate evolution (the study of fossilized bones). Eight years ago in Blacksburg.
Along with thousands of fossils, the museum is home to a 32-inch omniglobe display and an extensive collection of mineral specimens, most recently supported by a gift from the personal collection of longtime patron Don Dalton.
“We have so many different minerals, lots of calcite and beautiful minerals across the board, and different ones from around the world,” said museum manager Maria Green. “So all together, it’s a very large collection – over 14,000 mineral samples.”
In the year Dalton, who graduated in 1960, was a longtime donor, having chaired the museum’s annual mineral sale for 25 years. Dalton died in July 2020 and left his personal mineral collection to the museum.
Green joined the College of Science a year ago after earning degrees at Northeastern Illinois University and the University of Colorado Boulder. Being around the museum’s rich collection allows her to constantly expand her knowledge, she said.
“Probably my favorite thing about this museum is just being able to improvise while learning about new minerals that I never knew existed before I got here,” Green said.
She said it is another interesting issue as students gain experience and explore future career opportunities in the field.
“In the summer of 2016, I had the opportunity to do an internship at the Field Museum [in Chicago], and that’s what changed the world… that’s what made me see what I wanted to do,” Green said. “So if I can do this for another student, give them that experience that makes my heart happy.”
For Nesbitt, the addition of the T. rex skull and plans to expand the space around it to include a deeper history of dinosaurs to birds represent the museum’s efforts to expand learning opportunities for the public.
“We’re an open space and we’re here for people to learn,” Nesbitt said. “Everything in this room tells a story, and these are stories you can’t read about in a textbook, but you can come and see.”
