Tour the National Museum After the First Fifty Years

To collect samples of all the quarries of stone worked in this country special agents were employed by the Census Bureau, and the specimens received were treated as follows: Each specimen, after being catalogued, was placed in the hands of stone-cutters, who dressed them into four-inch cubes, the different faces being finished as follows: Polished in front, drafted and pointed on the left side, drafted rock face upon the right side, rock face behind, and smooth sanded or chiseled upon the top and bottom. Sandstones which do not polish have the front face simply rubbed smooth. The chips are carefully saved, to be utilized in chemical and microscopic analyses.

In this collection are found upwards of 2,000 specimens of building and ornamental stones, representing all the quarries of importance at present worked in the United States as well as many foreign ones, and is an invaluable reference series.

See the Handbook for more information on,

ARCHITECTURE

MINERALS

INORGANIC WORLD

Return to start of the Tour the National Museum in 1886