New York City - The American Museum of Natural History announced Gold, a spectacular exhibition that will explore the historical fascination with this enduring icon of wealth, beauty, and power.  This exhibition will continue a series the Museum has developed on precious and semi-precious materials such as Amber: Window to the Past, Nature of Diamonds, and Pearls.

Gold will open at the Museum on November 18, 2006, and remain on view through August 19, 2007.  Gold is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in cooperation with The Houston Museum of Natural Science. The exhibition is co-curated by American Museum of Natural History scientists James D. Webster, Chair and Curator in the Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences; and Craig Morris and Charles Spencer, Curators in the Division of Anthropology, and is designed and produced by the American Museum of Natural History’s Department of Exhibition.

Showcasing a vast array of extraordinary objects gleaned from the geology and cultural anthropology holdings of major museums and private collections around the world,  Gold will present the fascinating scientific and cultural story of this rare and prized element.  The influence of gold throughout history will be examined through the currency of ancient civilizations, displays on the Gold Rush that shaped the American West, and contemporary pop culture items. Historical exhibition highlights will include enormous nuggets of gold such as the famous Latrobe Nugget, a specimen of rare natural crystallized gold; gold bars; rare doubloons retrieved from sunken Spanish galleons; the first gold coins minted in ancient Lydia (now Turkey); gold textiles; and gleaming pre-Columbian jewelry and other objects from the Museum’s own collection. 

Visitors will experience firsthand the alluring splendor of the finest gold specimens on Earth and learn how gold is located, mined, processed, and turned into both beautiful and useful objects.  Among the treasures on display is a reproduction of a 3,000-year-old map—the Turin Papyrus found in Egypt—that pinpoints the location of regional gold deposits.  Compelling modern objects that may include Olympic medals, Academy Awards Oscar statuettes, and best-selling gold records, will illustrate the powerful hold that gold continues to have on our imagination.  And visitors will discover that gold has amazing physical properties such as extreme malleability, reflectivity, and conductivity that make it invaluable for technological uses from telephones and televisions to satellite circuitry and astronauts’ visors.

Throughout the exhibition, there will be numerous opportunities for visitors to explore the unique properties of gold.  They can walk through a room completely covered in a single ounce of gold flattened to exquisite thinness, guess the amount of gold ore found in a boulder, and even try their hand at panning for their own gold.

Visit The American Museum of Natural History at : http://www.amnh.org/

Image Descriptions :

California Gold Specimen

Over 150 million years ago, magma, or molten rock, ascended towards Earth’s surface drove superheated, gold-bearing water into cracks in the surrounding rocks, which deposited the veins of quartz and gold. This crystallized specimen was found in Eagle’s Nest, California ©Jackie Beckett/AMNH

Mixtec Bell

This elaborate gold bell was crafted with the lost-wax process more than 500 years ago and possibly depicts the patron of fire known as Xiutecuhtili to the Aztecs and Iha Ndikandii to the Mixtecs of Oaxaca. The Mixtecs probably manufactured this object, which was found in the state of Veracruz near the Oaxaca border. Bearded, with two fangs, the depicted deity wears an elaborate headdress and carries a shield and atlatl (spear thrower).  ©Craig Chesek/AMNH