Press

A lecture and book signing by a Smithsonian paleontologist will be among the activities at the "10th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale," which will be held Saturday, February 22 and Sunday, February 23 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the museum's concourse level, the show will help to fund new acquisitions for the museum's gem and mineral collections. It will feature vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools.

Available for sale at the museum's publications booth will be publications produced by the New York State Museum's Research and Collections Division documenting research in natural and human history in New York. Materials on display will include data in geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

Dr. Ellis Yochelson, who also is retired from the US Geological Survey, will lecture Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Clark Auditorium on "Mystery Fossils: 500 Million-Year-old 'Motor-Cycle Tracks' from Northeastern New York." His lecture on Sunday at noon in the Clark Auditorium will be on "A Life Well Lived: The Utica and Albany Years of C.D. Walcott, America's Greatest Geologist."

The Saturday lecture will focus on Dr. Yochelson's research with Michael Fedonkin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This work led to a new interpretation of how large marine animals produced giant track-ways in ancient sandstones near the New York-Canadian border.

Dr. Yochelson's lecture on Walcott will begin with Walcott's birth near Utica and trace his career in geologica research that led to his becoming head of the Smithsonian and a member of the American Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yochelson will also sign copies of his biography on Walcott.
On Saturday at noon in the Clark Auditorium, Dr. Marian Lupulescu, a mineralogist for the State
Museum, will lecture on "The World of Minerals." He will explain what a mineral is, the relationship between its structure, shape and properties, and in what environments minerals can form. Minerals from
the museum's extensive collections will be shown as examples.

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club throughout the weekend.
• A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the museum's senior cartographer, about map making processes and methods for producing the State Museum's new geologic quadrangle map.
• Guided tours of the Minerals of New York gallery, highlighting recent acquisitions, by Michael Hawkins, the State Museum's mineralogy collections manager, on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Meet in museum lobby
• Guided fossil tours of the expanded Ancient Life of New York and the new Burgess Shale exhibitions by Dr. Ed Landing, state paleontologist, on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Meet in museum lobby.
• Identification by museum scientists of fossils and minerals brought in by the public, throughout the weekend.

The gem and mineral show was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the museum's geological staff, and has become one of the museum's most popular and well-attended annual events.

There will be an admission fee of $3 per person and no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. There also will be a $5 combination ticket available that will include admission to "New York in Bloom," which will be held at the museum the same weekend. Tickets may be purchased at the door.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.