25 Treasures: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature April 9 to October 27, 2002 Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature University of Richmond Museums A 165 million-year-old fossil of an ichthyosaur from England, a 2,400 carat blue topaz from Brazil, a three-foot wide and 150-pound clam shell from Australia, an intricately-carved alabaster model of the Taj Mahal in India, a chrysanthemum stone from Japan, and a nineteenth-century Russian brooch with 97 rose-cut diamonds - these are just a few of the amazing treasures that are highlighted in this special exhibition commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, the University's natural sciences and arts museum.
The twenty-five objects selected for the exhibition range from pieces given by Mrs. Lora McGlasson Robins upon the founding of the museum in 1977 to several recent acquisitions given to the museum by donors within the past year. The museum's permanent collection includes more than 100,000 items such as gems, minerals, fluorescent rocks, geodes, fossils, shells, corals, ceramics, jewelry, glassware, sculpture, porcelains, ancient coins, decorative arts, and much more. Established in 1977 by Mrs. Lora M. Robins, wife of E. Claiborne Robins, the museum originally housed a variety of minerals, decorative arts, and shell specimens donated by Mrs. Robins. In 1989, the museum moved into its expanded facilities located in a separate wing of the Boatwright Memorial Library. Gifts of objects from Aruba to Zaire complemented the original collection and helped fill the more than 100 permanent display cases. For this 25th anniversary exhibition, several items have been highlighted to display the wealth and breadth of the collection. The decorative arts selection includes an alabaster model of the Taj Mahal, carved in the mid-1970s by the direct descendents of the craftsmen who built the original building in Agra, India, in the early seventeenth century. From Africa comes an unusually decorated mancala game board. One of the world's oldest games, mancala players take turns "sowing" seeds on the board, trying to capture the most seeds from the other player. The piece in the museum's collection features eight figures who serve to elevate the board above the ground as well as a man and a woman who watch over the game. The museum's renowned Edward Marshall Boehm porcelain collection is represented by a pair of Mute Swans. The limited edition piece is a replica of the Boehm sculpture commissioned by former President Nixon and given to Chairman Mao Tse-Tung of China in 1972. A six-foot-long carved rosewood log from China features eighteen human figures and numerous animals and dragons. Representing various Chinese immortals, the figures include warriors, bejeweled women, and potbellied men, each holding different attributes such as fruit, vessels, weapons, or religious symbols. A giant clamshell measuring more than three feet long represents the largest species of bivalves. Although these clams can live as long as 40 years, they are considered an endangered species due to aggressive hunting for their use as a food source as well as an item valued by collectors. Jewelry in the exhibition includes a Russian brooch dating to 1875. The pin's star and crescent design utilizes the special antique rose-cut diamonds popular during that period. Also included in the exhibition is a stunning necklace with 55 emeralds and 81 diamonds. A brilliant pinkish-red rhodochrosite that is 20 inches tall offers a brilliant specimen of this colorful stone from India. Virginia minerals are represented by an iridescent hematite from Alleghany County. The ichthyosaur specimen is a Jurassic Period "fish lizard" - an air breathing sea creature whose long, flexible body allowed for great speed in hunting. This prehistoric animal ate mainly squid, and became extinct just prior to the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period, approximately 90 million years ago.