Slab of selenite, used as a window pane

Collection type: Object
Description: Slab of selenite, used as a window pane
Long description: Slab of selenite, used as a window pane. The slab is thin and semi transparent light yellowish orange coloured. The slab is parallelogram shaped. [MJD (Verve) 23/06/2015]
Geographical reference: United States of America
Northern America > North America > United States of America; Western USA New Mexico Cibola County Acoma Pueblo
Cultural groups: Acoma
Person: Field collector Beatrice Mary Blackwood; PRM source Beatrice Mary Blackwood
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1926
Date collected: 1926
Acquisition information: Donated: 1927
Materials and processes: Material Selenite Stone, Process Split
Dimensions: Width: max 58 mm, Length: max 103 mm, Height: max 12 mm, Weight 102 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1927.1.7
Research and responses: Extract from undated 'Acoma' evening lecture, in the PRM Blackwood manuscript collection, box 13:
‘The windows of the houses at Acoma used to be, and a few still were at the time of my visit, made not of glass but of selenite, a kind of gypsum which comes from the mountains. These windows, translucent rather than transparent, are now being replaced by glass. One man was in process [sic] of doing this during my visit, so I was able, without doing violence to my conscience, to secure one of the selenite windows for the Pitt Rivers Museum.’ [FL 15-07-05]