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George Frederick Kunz

George Frederick Kunz (September 29, 1856 – June 29, 1932) was an American mineralogist and mineral collector.

George Frederick Kunz

(1856-09-29)29 September 1856

29 June 1932(1932-06-29) (aged 75)

Trinity Church Cemetery, at Broadway and 153rd Street, New York

American

George Kuntz

Biography[edit]

Kunz was born in New York City, USA, and began an interest in minerals at a very young age. By his teens, he had amassed a collection of over four thousand items, which he sold for four hundred dollars to the University of Minnesota. Kunz attended Cooper Union but did not finish and did not attend college. Nonetheless, he taught himself mineralogy from books and field research. This expertise landed him a job with Tiffany & Co., and his knowledge and enthusiasm propelled him into a vice presidency by the time he was 23.[1] He gained much notoriety for identifying a new gem variety of the mineral spodumene which was named "Kunzite" in his honor. He also supervised the cutting of the very large stone that became the Tiffany Yellow Diamond.


He headed up the US mining and mineralogical exhibits at the international expositions in Paris (1889), Chicago (1893), Atlanta (1895), Paris (1900), and St. Louis (1904). He gave a series of eight lectures on "Precious Stones" for the Lowell Institute's 1894–95 season.[2] As a gentleman scientist, he was a member of the Mineralogical Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences (of which he was once a vice president), the New York Mineralogical Club, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society (for which he served as president), the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (of which he was once a vice president), and many other cultural, scientific, and naturalist organizations.


He was the founder and president of the Museums of the Peaceful Arts in 1913, special agent for the US Geological Survey (1883–1909), a research curator at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, and the leading advocate in the establishment of the international carat as a unit of measure for precious gems. He also assembled the Morgan-Tiffany collection of gems in the American Museum of Natural History. Kunz had an active life dedicated to science and public service.


Kunz promoted the adoption of the decimal metric system of weights and measures in the United States and was President of the American Metric Association.[3]


He wrote over 300 articles during his life. More than ninety years after his death, many of his books are still in print.


Kunz married Sophia Hanforth in 1879, who died in 1912. In 1923, Kunz married Opal Logan Giberson, a noted aviator, but the marriage was annulled in 1929.[4] Nonetheless, Opal Kunz continued to maintain Kunz's household until his death, on June 29, 1932.

(AM, June 8, 1898) The award was presented by Professor James F. Kemp, professor of Geology at Columbia;

Columbia University

(Ph.D., 1903), especially for his contributions to European and German mineralogy.[5] Surprisingly, in 1920, in a highly unusual act, this honorary award was withdrawn by the university faculty due [according to Dr. Kunz] to his efforts to help reforest France, and his supposed sympathies to the French and English allies against Germany.[6]

University of Marburg

(Sc. D., 1907).

Knox College of Illinois

He was given many honorary degrees from US and European universities. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from the Cooper Union in 1872.

Personal library[edit]

After his death, his personal collection of several thousand rare books, pamphlets and articles on gems and precious stones were sold to the United States Geological Survey Library for one dollar. Acquired by the Library in 1933, the George F. Kunz Collection is a significant special collection on gems and minerals including rare books on gemology, the folklore of gemstones through history, lapidary arts and archival gem trade records important to the provenance of named stones such as the "Hope Diamond."[7]


In December 2012, the discovery of a rare photographic album dated 1922 among the books from Mr Kunz' personal library was announced by the USGS.[8] The album contained 81 photographs of the Russian Crown Jewels and pre-dates the official catalog by the Soviet government by 3 years. Researchers have identified four pieces of jewelry that were documented in 1922 that were not included in the later catalog and that are assumed missing today.[9][10]

Kunz, George F. and Charles Hugh Stevenson (1869-?). . New York: The Century Co., 1908. 548 pages, 125 plates and illustrations (17 colored); maps.

The Book of the Pearl: The History, Art, Science and Industry of the Queen of Gems

Kunz, George F. . Arranged by George Frederick Kunz, Chairman of the Committee on Art, Scientific and Historical Exhibitions. New York: The Mayor's Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee. 1917. 266 pages, illustrations including maps, facsimiles, portraits.

Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Publication: A Collection of Pamphlets Published in Connection with the Celebration of the Completion of the Catskill Aqueduct, being Chiefly Catalogues of Exhibitions Held by Art, Scientific and Historical Museums and Institutions in New York City in Cooperation with the Mayor’s Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee in 1917

Kunz, George F. 1913. . Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 1913. Six color plates (including the tissue-guarded frontispiece), scores of double-tone photographs and inter-textual line cuts. 406 pages, 86 illustrations in color, doubletone and in-line.

Curious Lore of Precious Stones: Being a Description of their Sentiments and Folk Lore, Superstitions, Symbology, Mysticism, Use in Medicine, Protection, Prevention, Religion, and Divination, Crystal Gazing, Birth Stones, Lucky Stones and Talismans, Astral, Zodiacal and Planetary

Ahlborn, Richard E. and Vera Beaver-Bricken Espinola, eds. Russian Copper Icons and Crosses From the Kunz Collection: Castings of Faith. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1991. 85 pages with illustrations, some colored. Includes bibliographical references pages 84–85. Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology: No. 51.

Burchard, Hank. "Wright Idea, Wrong Stuff." The Washington Post. June 10, 1988, page WE49. Discusses new display of the Kunz collection of sold to the Smithsonian Institution.

Russian icons

Conklin, Lawrence H. "On Kunz and Kunzite." Mineralogical Record. Volume 18, pages 369–372.

Conklin, Lawrence H. "The Original Specimens of Kunzite." The Matrix: A Journal on the History of Minerals. Volume 1, number 3, page 45. An account of the first specimen of kunzite from Charles Baskerville's collection, used in 1903 in the original determination and naming of that species.

Conklin, Lawrence H. "Curious Lore of George F. Kunz." Matrix: A Journal of the History of Minerals. Dillburg, PA. Volume 5 (3), 1997, pages 108–114.

Conklin, Lawrence H. Notes and commentaries on letters to George F. Kunz: correspondence from various sources, including Clarence S. Bement: with facsimiles. New Canaan, Ct.: L. H. Conklin, 1986. 137 pages, ill., portraits. ; 29 cm. Title on spine: Letters to George F. Kunz. Bibliography: p. 137. Tiffany & Co. did a reprint of this limited edition book (only 150 copies) in 1987.

Kunz, George Frederick (1883). "Precious Stones". Mineral Resources of the United States. 1882: 483–499.

Kunz, George Frederick (1886). "Rare gems and interesting minerals". Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences: 131–133.

Diller, Joseph Silas and Kunz, G.F.; Kunz, GF (1887). . Science. ns-10 (241): 140–142. doi:10.1126/science.ns-10.241.140-d. PMID 17755042. S2CID 40332118.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

"Is there a diamond field in Kentucky?"

Kerr, Paul Francis. "Memorial of George Frederick Kunz [1856-1932]" American Mineralogist, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 91–94, March 1933

Purtell, Joseph. "[George F. Kunz] The All-American Collector." IN: The Tiffany Touch. New York: Pocket Books, Inc. (Originally published by Random House, in 1972). Pages 71–94. Evidently Mrs. Ruby Kunz Zinsser, Dr. Kunz's daughter, aided the author in his work, and told him her reminiscences of her father.

Whitlock, Herbert Percy. "Memorial of George Frederick Kunz [1856-1932]" Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol.44, Part 2, pp. 377–394, April 1933

Spencer, Leonard James. "George Frederick Kunz [1856-1932]" Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, August 1933

NOTE: Mr. Kunz' personal library was acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey Library in 1933. The George F. Kunz Collection is a significant special collection on gems and minerals including rare books on gemology, the folklore of gemstones through history, lapidary arts and archival gem trade records important to the provenance of named stones such as the "Hope Diamond." Kunz was a former USGS employee. The collection is held in Reston, Virginia and is available to researchers by appointment.

- blog collection of information on Kunz

Contributions of George Frederick Kunz

at Project Gutenberg

Works by George Frederick Kunz

at Internet Archive

Works by or about George Frederick Kunz

at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Works by George Frederick Kunz

at Google Books

Works by George Frederick Kunz

Liddicoat, Richard T. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017.

"George F. Kunz bibliography"

(1908) available online and in pdf downloads from the Gem and Diamond Foundation. Also available at the Internet Archive

The book of the pearl

(NOTE: Kunz worked with Mathilde Laigle to write the Book of Pearl (part : "Années de professorat aux États-Unis"))