Beautiful mineral sculptures carved from jade, carnelian, malachite, lapis lazuli, tiger eye, and rock crystal are on loan from the Halls of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

This special exhibit in the Robert M. Linsley Geology Museum celebrates Colgate’s Bicentennial, as well as the university’s 150-year association with one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions.

The AMNH was created 150 years ago, in 1869, and its founding father was Albert S. Bickmore, then a professor at Madison University (now Colgate). Robert Colgate, benefactor of Colgate University, was signatory to the original letter of December 30, 1868 to the Central Park Board of Commissioners requesting the establishment of a great Museum of Natural History in NYC. One of the first dinosaur eggs ever discovered (which can be seen in the Linsley Geology Museum) was acquired by Colgate Trustee Col. Austen B. Colgate from Roy Chapman Andrews, world-famous explorer who found the egg during his 1923 AMNH-sponsored expedition to the Gobi Desert. George D. Langdon Jr., Colgate’s 12th president, was named the 9th president of the AMNH and served there until 1993.