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Description: | Alex Herriot, of East Kilbride, Scotland, was a civil engineer, but his passion was the microscopic study of rocks and minerals.
Over many decades he developed superb skill in making thin sections of rocks using simple equipment in the kitchen of his home. His expertise and skill were such that professional geologists often consulted him for advice on problematic rocks, and the British Geological Survey relied on his collections and his expertise for the mapping and classification of the dykes of Arran. He also published several scientific papers, as was joint editor of a field guide to the geology of Arran. His collection houses innumerable, excellent examples to accompany these works.
When he died in early 1999, Herriot bequeathed his collection, plus catalogues and maps, to the Hunterian Museum. There are over 5600 beautifully-labelled and catalogued slides, representing a major petrological resource. The collection is strong in Scottish rocks, especially the Carboniferous, Permian and Palaeogene minor intrusions of western and central Scotland.
However, it is an excellent general petrographic reference collection of world-wide scope and covering almost all classes of rocks, from sedimentary to metamorphic, as well as artifical products such as slags. Unusual minerals present in this collection include: aenigmatite, eucryptite, phenakite, serendibite, sapphirine, clinohumite, villaumite, dumortierite, and many more.
His collection is completely computer-catalogued at the Hunterian, and around 250 thin-sections have been photographed using digital photomicroscopy. These images are also available via the online catalogue. | Subjects: | Geology | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Address: | University of Glasgow,
University Avenue,
G12 8QQ | Creator: | John Faithfull | Contributor: | A. Herriot | Identifier: | C-0045 |
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