GOLD Your Guides to GOLD

Title: Curator of anthropology, Anthropology Department  

Birthplace: Tucson, Ariz.

Education: University of Arizona, BA (1996); Indiana University, MA (2001), PhD (2004)

Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh serves as the primary steward of the Museum’s Native American and world ethnology collections, overseeing the care and curation of a wide variety of textiles, masks, pottery, and other cultural objects. His research interests consist of Native American ethnology and archaeology, museum anthropology, the social and political uses of history, heritage management, and research ethics.

“The past is a vital, important part of the human experience, and yet societies use, craft, and value the past in different ways,” said Colwell-Chanthaphonh. “My current research is an attempt to understand how ‛history’ is constructed differently by different cultures, and why it is that human societies desire to understand those who have come before us.”

Look for More Gold Around the Museum:

In addition to the objects from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science anthropology collections in the GOLD exhibition, look for additional gold artifacts from Central and South America in the Weckbaugh Exhibits Case outside the Crane North American Indian Cultures Hall on Level 2.

About the Department of Anthropology: 

• The Department of Anthropology is committed to the exploration of human experience by collecting, preserving, and interpreting material culture within natural and cultural contexts, particularly in the western interior of the United States.
• Through ethnology—the study of recent and living peoples—and archaeology—the study of ancient human culture—the department investigates human diversity in our rapidly transforming world and shares with the public the excitement of the discipline’s art and science

 
Paul Morgan, PhD

Title: Curator of geology and chair, Earth Sciences Department

Birthplace: London, England

Education: Durham University (UK), BS (1969); London University (Imperial College), PhD (1973)

Paul Morgan is the chair of the Earth Sciences Department and is primarily responsible for the care and curation of Museum’s extensive collections of rocks and minerals. Morgan can provide insight into all aspects of geology, including the geological processes that form rocks and mineral deposits in Earth’s crust. His research interests include the mapping and measuring the ancient crust of our planet—the oldest rocks found on Earth.

“Gold is one of the few metallic elements that is almost always mined as a native element, that is as a single element rather than the metal combined with another element, such as iron or silver sulfide,” said Morgan. “Concentrated or high-grade gold deposits are often tiny, no more than ten feet across, in which the grade is very high, so they are easily missed. In Colorado, most of the high-grade gold deposits have probably been worked out, but low-grade hard-rock ore continues to be mined.”

Look for More Gold Around the Museum:

Morgan has primary responsibility for the outstanding specimens in Coors Mineral Hall. Here visitors will find the Campion gold collection, one of the founding collections of the Museum. It consists of exquisite crystalline gold and gold wires from the Farncomb Hill area near Breckenridge in Summit County, Colorado.  John F. Campion owned several mines in the area and collected particularly fine specimens for his personal collection. The most famous piece of the collection is Tom’s Baby, a huge piece of crystalline gold weighing more than eight pounds (102 troy ounces), which was discovered in the Farncomb Hill area in 1887.

About the Department of Earth Sciences:

• The Department of Earth Sciences explores and documents the evolution of the physical and biological components of Earth, and facilitates the understanding and protection of our planet and its record of the past.
• The Museum’s geology collections hold specimens of most mineral species in the Rocky Mountains and others throughout the world. Meteorites and rocks also are represented.
• In addition, the department has an extensive paleontology collection, including vertebrates, invertebrates, and paleobotanical specimens. The collections have strengths in vertebrates and plants from the western interior of North America.