New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

Paul Seel was an avid mineral collector, famous micromounter, and member of the Micromounters Hall of Fame.

A major emphasis in Paul's collection began in the late 1940s with a growing fascination in diamond crystals and their formation. He started to collect and study them as microcrystals, spending considerable time gathering information on their formation deep in the earth and the way they were transported to the surface.

His collection of mounted microdiamonds containing over 3,000 items shows most of the crystal forms, colors, and has some diamonds with inclusions. There also are 7,000 unmounted, sorted microcrystals in the collection as well as 100 macrocrystals. An interest in morphological crystallography led him to specialize in collecting diamond, topaz, and quartz crystals that display normal and unique forms. In the 1950s Paul started to collect synthetic diamonds from friends who worked at General Electric Company. These early synthetics that he obtained are only fractional millimeter in size. He also has dual mounts of diamonds where one was irradiated by neutrons showing a change in color.
One of the highlights of Paul's mineralogical experiences was his invitation to participate in the first kimberlite conference in South Africa in 1973, where he gave a talk and had a chance to collect and buy diamonds.

Paul made hand drawings of many of his micromounted diamonds. His drawings show the great details of the crystal forms that are difficult to see by someone not familiar with crystallography. By using two projectors it is possible to see Paul's drawing and the actual crystal at the same time.