On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., we’ll be having our monthly meeting virtually, featuring…
Spann Favorites
with Jim and Gail Copus Spann
Members, watch your email for connection information!
The details…
In the last two decades, Gail and Jim Spann have amassed one of the most impressive private mineral collections in the world. They have over 15,000 specimens in their collection, and they sometimes refer to their home in Texas as a “live-in museum.” Anyone who has spent much time at major shows or mineral museums has probably seen many of their pieces. They have agreed to walk us through some of their favorites from the collection, giving us some of the back story that goes with them.
About the presenters…
Gail and Jim Spann have been collecting for less than 20 years but have amassed what many feel is one of the premiere private mineral collections. They met through their mutual love of bicycling and “discovered” their love of minerals while skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado, when Jim fell in love with a plate of rhodochrosites from the Hedgehog Pocket find at the nearby Sweet Home Mine. Jim took Gail to the mineral halls at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences to show her the Alma Queen, which is one of the finest Sweet Home rhodochrosites in existence, and during that trip, Gail discovered a love for the windowpane crystals of wulfenite from the San Francisco Mine in Mexico. After some research, she quickly discovered, as she told Jim, “Hey, Honey, you can buy this stuff!” Fast forward 16-½ years, and now they have accumulated more than 15,000 specimens, of all sizes, and had to add 9000 square feet to their Houston home to make room for the growing collection. Gail and Jim are well known in the mineral world for their warmth and hospitality, frequently giving tours of their home collection to students and fellow collectors. And they have been very active in the mineral community, making generous loans to museums, displaying at worldwide shows, and being very active in their support for such mineral collecting resources as MinDat and the Mineralogical Record.