By Pat Sherman
SDUN Assistant Editor

Since bipedal beings first sought the warmth and shelter of caves, people have been dazzled to distraction by the color and luminosity of gemstones.

“When the ancient Greeks found colorless quartz crystals, they thought it was permanently frozen water – frozen by the gods because it was so perfect,” San Diego-based gemologist and jewelry historian Elise Misiorowski said. “To them, this was magic.”

Visitors to the San Diego Natural History Museum can ascribe their own magic to these natural treasures forged by time, heat and pressure during a new exhibition, “All That Glitters: The Splendor and Science of Gems and Minerals.” It opens May 15 and runs through April 2012.

Visitors are enticed into the exhibition through an “alluring gems” section, filled with an array of royalty- and deity-worthy “bling.” Included is Alan Bronstein’s “Aurora Butterfly of Peace.” The luxurious lepidoptera, formerly on display at the Smithsonian Institute, is comprised of 240 natural diamonds in a variety of colors, shapes and cuts, weighing a total 167 carats.

Misiorowski, the exhibit’s curator and a former museum director with Carlsbad-based Gemological Institute of America (GIA), designed the show to be a visually spectacular and edifying exploration of people’s lengthy relationship with gems and minerals, both as healing instruments and status-signifying ornamentation.

Divided into four sections, the exhibit includes opulent jewelry and unpolished gems on loan from private collectors and educational institutions such as the GIA, Harvard University Mineralogical Museum and the Newark Museum.

About a dozen pieces of ancient, pre-Columbian jewelry from Mesooamerica are featured alongside contemporary pieces such as necklaces, brooches and tiaras of diamond, sapphire emerald and topaz.

“In ancient times they made certain types of jewelry, using certain types of materials, but we still wear beads, cuff bracelets and earrings,” Misiorowski said. “The materials have changed, but the way we adorn ourselves hasn’t much.”

Visitors are invited to touch some samples, such as a huge jade recovered from the waters near Big Sur, while many other exhibits are interactive in nature.

Children can take part in a scavenger hunt in which they are asked to locate whimsical, nature-themed jewelry, such as matching panther and tiger Cartier brooches, or a yacht steering rabbit fashioned from diamond, sapphire, ruby, gold and platinum.

The core of the exhibit will focus on gemstones from San Diego County and across California, highlighting the gold rush of the mid-19th century that includes several locally recovered nuggets.

At the same time a gold rush was happening near Julian, tourmaline was discovered in Fallbrook and Pala.

The exhibit includes a mock geologic formation known as a pegmatite pocket, as would be found tucked into the side of a mountain, brimming with milky quartz and rosy pink tourmaline crystals.

“Tourmalines in particular and many other gem materials grow in pegmatite pockets,” Misiorowski said. “People will get a sense of how that formation happens and what you might see if you open one of those pockets.”

Collector Bill Larson loaned several of his finest tourmaline specimens recovered in Pala to the Natural History Museum.

The late mineralogy buff Josephine Scripps, while serving as honorary curator of minerals at the San Diego Natural History Museum during the 1970’s, referred to Larson as “one of her monsters,” for his insatiable interest in mining.

“I was like 14 and we were shooting dynamite off when it was legal, mining up in Pala, Rincon and in Ramona,” recalled Larson, now 64 and co-owner of Fallbrook-based gem and mineral wholesaler, Pala International.

Other gemstones from east and north county San Diego, including orange spessartite garnet, pink- and lilac-colored kunzite, blue topaz and aquamarine are included, as well as
California’s state gemstone, benetoite. Discovered in 1907 in San Benito County, the only place in the world it is known to exist, the light blue gem was at first mistakenly identified as sapphire.

“I’m hoping that there will be something that is visually stunning to everyone,” Misiorowski said. “A lot of people don’t necessarily see beautiful gem crystals and know that when they come out of the ground they have such an amazing appearance.”

All that Glitters
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through April 2012
San Diego Natural History Museum, 1788 El Prado, Balboa Park
$10-$16
232-3821 or sdnhm.org