The Vanuxem Collection

The Lardner Vanuxem collection of minerals and fossils, lost since its sale in 1853-1854 to W. M. Stewart of Clarksville, Tennessee, has been rediscovered, along with a catalog of the collection. The collection is summarized in tabular form. The disposition of the specimens since the death of Vanuxem, in 1848, is also discussed. About five percent of the original 6,000-specimen mineral collection still exists at Southwestern University at Memphis. The Vanuxem collection catalog, reprinted by W. M. Stewart circa 1855, indicated a comprehensive collection of the minerals known in the first half of the 19th century. The Vanuxem fossil collection contained some 16,000 sepcimens, most of which were from the Lower Paleozoic (Potsdam Sandstone, Medina Sandstone, Marcellus Shale, and many Trentonianage formations) of New York State. The collection was organized later by W. M. Stewart on the basis of geologic periods. Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, and Tertiary fossils are dominant. No trace of the Vanuxem fossil collection exists today, although it was still in use in 1923 by students at Southwestern Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tennessee.