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stellerite

I have purchase white cardboard trays. The started out as flat cut out that you can easily fold into cardboard trays. These trays have no tops. 


the assembled cardboard tray

I next have sheets of cotton that I have bought from a local pharmacy.  I cut a small rectangle of cotton to put in the tray to help cushion the mineral specimen that will go there.  I then cut out a small rectangle out of a piece of white poster board to place in the cardboard box and serve as an identifying label.


the label

I am lucky enough to have a large wooden cabinet of drawers, and all the mineral specimens go into their cardboard trays and then into a drawer for safe keeping.

I keep three sets of three by five inch file cards to store all my information: Specimens, Minerals, and Localities.  I may one day soon try and convert all this over to Microsoft Access. We'll see.

The first set of cards, the specimens is probably most important.  It contains all the information that I have about the one corresponding mineral.  It has pre-printed descriptions where I can write in by hand details for catalog number, drawer location, name, variety, chemical formula, how acquired (collected, traded, bought, or gift), locality, collector, date acquired, date cataloged, cost, value, grouping, associates, and a larger section for notes.


this card holds all the information



back of information card

The second set has a card for each mineral species and then a list of corresponding specimen numbers.  This way asks me is I have a particular mineral, I can find it in a flash.


mineral species look up card

The third set has a card for each mineral locality sorted alphabetically by state and then town, etc.  Each card lists the corresponding specimen numbers.  This way if someone is touring a particular locality I can quickly show them material from the given area

locality look up card

After all this is done I am ready to store the mineral in the designated drawer.


the finished product !