This story was originally published in the 2024 edition of Discovery magazine, the College of Science’s publication. This edition of Discovery celebrated the 20th anniversary of the College of Science.
At the north end of the University Quad stands the Mackay Mines building, and inside is the W. M. Keck Earth Sciences and Mineral Engineering Museum, with its treasure troves of gems, spectacular silver pieces and a wealth of knowledge.
A historic building documents Nevada’s history
The Keck Museum’s history is intricately tied to the history of the Mackay family and the University itself, though the name of the museum has changed from its original name. The museum has long been located in the Mackay Mines building, named for John W. Mackay, the silver baron who made it rich on the Virginia City Comstock Lode. Clarence Mackay (John Mackay’s son), and Marie Louise Mackay (John Mackay’s wife and Clarence’s mother), gave large sums of money to the University after John’s passing to support mining education in the area. Clarence Mackay insisted that the Mackay School of Mines have a museum.
The University’s mining and geology departments had already collected specimens, so the museum’s collection extends back to the founding of the University in 1874. There are labels in the collection that still read “Nevada State University” (the University’s name until 1906). A large collection of every mineral mined and found in Nevada at the time from the Nevada State Mineral Exhibition, held in Goldfield in 1908, was moved to the museum after the exhibition. When the museum was formally founded in 1908, it was known as the “University of Nevada Museum” and served as a museum for the entire University.
“While the Nevada Historical Society was founded four years before us, we were the one of the first purposely built museums in the state of Nevada and one of the first collecting institutions,” Garrett Barmore, Mackay School of Mines endowed curator and museum manager, said. “And because of that, we have a lot of Nevada history that’s kind of outside of our modern mission. We have a many objects from Nevada’s exhibits at various world’s fairs, which includes our big map of Nevada that was made in 1915 for the Pan Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco.”…