American Museum of Natural History: The Hall of Gems and Minerals

From our trip to the Museum of Natural History. My favorite exhibit was the Hall of Gems and Minerals (obviously). Not only were the gems amazingly beautiful, but the room that they are set in is hilariously out of date and the tags say things like the gems came from the USSR. My favorite new finds were the star sapphires and the petrified opal clams. I even love how the star sapphires are displayed. The largest of the stones was donated by J.P. Morgan. The petrified clams are so small and special. To my surprise, they're available on ebay and you bet I'm bidding on a few.

All photos by Mark Iantosca and see more black and white pics here