Leskean Cabinet facts for kids
The Leskean Cabinet is a special collection of minerals and other natural items from the 1700s. It is kept at the Natural History Museum in Dublin, Ireland. This amazing collection was put together by a scientist named Nathaniel Gottfried Leske.
Contents
History of the Cabinet
How the Cabinet Was Bought
In 1792, a group called the Royal Dublin Society decided they wanted to buy this famous collection. They voted to spend about £1250, which was a lot of money back then!
Dr. Richard Kirwan, a smart scientist, helped the Society buy the cabinet. By November 1792, the collection had arrived safely in Dublin. It was first stored at the Society’s warehouse. This warehouse also held other interesting things like art, old artifacts, and animal and plant specimens.
What's Inside the Collection?
After Nathaniel Leske passed away in 1786, another scientist named Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten carefully organized and described the collection in 1789. Dr. Richard Kirwan also helped update it in the 1790s.
The Leskean Cabinet is huge! It has 7,331 different mineral samples. These minerals were sorted into five main groups:
- External character of minerals: This part looks at how minerals appear on the outside, like their shape, color, and how shiny they are.
- Classification of minerals: This group sorts minerals based on their chemical makeup and structure.
- Earth's internal structure (geological): This section helps us understand how minerals fit into the Earth's layers and rocks.
- Mineralogical geography: This part shows where different minerals are found around the world.
- Economical mineralogy: This group focuses on minerals that are useful to people, like those used in building or industry.
Besides minerals, the collection also has some animal specimens. These include very important "type specimens" from the collection of Johann Friedrich Gmelin. Type specimens are like the original examples of a species.
In 1795, William Higgins became a professor at the Dublin Society. He was put in charge of the Leskean Cabinet. Students could visit the collection to learn about minerals. The Society even set up a special lab for experiments.
Seeing the Collection Today
Some parts of the Leskean Cabinet were put on display for the public a long time ago. A guide from that time described the museum. It said that one room showed different animal groups, like mammals, birds, and insects. Another room held the "geological" part of the Leskean collection, which means the minerals and rocks.
