BETA

Links

The following resources have been assembled for the benefit of researchers. Links to external websites are provided as a convenience and should not be construed as an endorsement by the National Park Service of the views or products contained therein.
 

Sections

 

Examples of Building Stone Databases

Decorative Stones (Czech Geological Survey)
http://decorative-stones.geology.cz/index_eng.pl

England’s Building Stone Pits (EBSPits) (English Heritage and Bristish Geological Survey)
A collaborative effort undertaken by English Heritage and the British Geological Survey to document and disseminate information about England’s quarries and its stone built environment. Presented as an online GIS map. Includes functionality for crowd-sourcing information.
http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/buildingStone/BuildingStone.html

National Building Stone Collection (British Geological Survey)
Images of specimens from the UK's National Building Stone Colection available on GeoScenic.
http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/browseItems?categoryId=1548...

Historic Quarries/Simplified Petrography for Archeologists (Universität Salzburg)
A database created by the Cultural Heritage Computing Group at Universität Salzburg. Organized around a petrographic hierarchy.
http://chc.sbg.ac.at/sri/thesaurus/

Natural Stone Database (Queens University Belfast)
Created by Queens University Belfast as a source for information on the stone-built heritage of Northern Ireland. Covers stone types, buildings, and quarries. Imagery based on examples from the built environment.
http://www.stonedatabase.com

NIST Building Stone Test Wall (National Institue of Standards and Technology)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains a publically-accessible database of stones from its natural weathering test wall experiment in Gaithersburg, MD. The database includes limited information and photographs of 2,032 domestic building stone samples from 47 states (and 320 stones from 16 foreign countries).
http://stonewall.nist.gov/

Stone-Database.com
A commercial database containing images and other information on 18,367 natural stone types from around the world.
http://natural-stone-database.com/

Stone Contact
A commercial database containing images and other information on 11,822 natural stone types from around the world and 213 from the US. Also includes information on 17 US quarries.
http://www.stonecontact.com

Building and Decorative Stone Collections

Imperial College Rock Library (Imperial College London)
Includes tools for identifying rock types and minerals in hand samples and thin sections.
https://www2.imperial.ac.uk/earthscienceandengineering/rocklibrary/index...

Smithsonian Building Stones Collection (Smithsonian Institution)
A collection of mostly domestic and some foreign stones dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A portion of the collection was transferred to NIST (see below) for testing in the late 1940s. 714 specimens remain in the Smithsonian's collection. A brief description is available from the Department of Mineral Science, National Museum of Natural History:
http://mineralsciences.si.edu/collections/rock_ore.htm
Some specimen details are available through the Smithsonian's Catalog Search Center:
http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=set_name:%22Building+Ston...

NIST Building Stone Test Wall (National Institue of Standards and Technology)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains a publically-accessible database of stones from its natural weathering test wall experiment in Gaithersburg, MD. The database includes limited information and photographs of 2,032 domestic building stone samples from 47 states (and 320 stones from 16 foreign countries).
http://stonewall.nist.gov/

Building and Decorative Stones of the UK (The Natural History Museum, London)
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/scientific-resources/collections/...

Building Stone Collection (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)
http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/ms/

Mineralogy and Petrology Resources

Handbook of Mineralogy (Mineralogical Society of America)
Contains detailed descriptions of al known minerals and their characteristics. Useful for identification. Available in hard copy and PDFs (free to the public).
http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/

Guide to Thin Section Microscopy (Mineralogical Society of America)
Textbook guide to the identification of minerals in thin section. Available as a PDF (free to the public).
http://www.minsocam.org/msa/openaccess_publications/#Guide

Atlas of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks, Minerals, and Textures (University of North Carolina)
Contains photomicrographs and mineral descriptions. Useful for identification.
http://leggeo.unc.edu/Petunia/IgMetAtlas/mainmenu.html

Rock Identification Key (Mineralogical Society of America)
http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/id/rock_key.htm

Mineral Identification Key  (Mineralogical Society of America)
http://www.minsocam.org/msa/collectors_corner/id/mineral_id_keyi1.htm

Minerals by Physical and Optical Properties (David Barthelmy)
http://webmineral.com/determin.shtml#.VHjlhvnF9u4

Oxford Earth Sciences Image Store (University of Oxford)
Contains a collection of digitized photographs of rocks, thin sections and minerals.
http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~oesis/

Virtual Microscope (Open University)
Features an interesting collection of rocks, including some from the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and Charles Darwin's personal collection. This site also has a wonderful interface for viewing digitized thin sections.
http://www.virtualmicroscope.org/

Rock to Stone (Philip Marshall, Roger Williams University)
Outlines an interesting classroom assignment/lesson plan, tracing the geology of building stones.
http://philipmarshall.net/Teaching/rwuhp382/assignments/rock_to_stone_as...

Stone Conservation Resources

Scientific Committee for Stone (ICOMOS)
International organization of researchers, conservators, and other experts in the field of stone conservation; convenors of the International Congress on the Deterioration and Conservation of Stone; publishes a stone deterioration glossary (available in seven languages).
http://iscs.icomos.org/

Illustrated Glossary on Stone Deterioration Patterns
http://iscs.icomos.org/glossary.html

Building Stone in the United States

Mineral Resources Data System (U.S. Geological Survey)
http://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/

Mine Data Retrieval System (U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration)
http://www.msha.gov/drs/drshome.htm

Report on the building stones of the United States, and statistics of the quarry industry for 1880 (U.S. Census Office, 1883)
Historical resource available for download from the Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/reportonbuilding00unit

Resources by State

Alabama

Geological Survey of Alabama
http://www.gsa.state.al.us/

Alaska

Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys 
http://dggs.alaska.gov/

Marble Resources of Southeastern Alaska (U.S. Geological Survey, 1920)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0682/report.pdf

Arizona

Arizona Geological Survey
http://www.azgs.az.gov/

Arkansas

Arkansas Geological Survey
http://www.geology.ar.gov/home/index.htm

California

California Geological Survey
http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/Pages/Index.aspx

Colorado

Colorado Geological Survey
http://coloradogeologicalsurvey.org/

Connecticut

Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey
http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2701&q=323434&depNav_GID=1641

Delaware

Delaware Geological Survey
http://www.dgs.udel.edu/

Florida

Florida Geological Survey
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/

Georgia

Environmental Protection Division
https://epd.georgia.gov/

Elberton Granite Association
http://www.egaonline.com/

Hawaii

Commission on Water Resource Management
http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/cwrm/

Idaho

Idaho Geological Survey
http://www.idahogeology.org/

Tertiary volcanic tuffs and sandstones used as building stones in the upper Salmon River Valley, Idaho (U.S. Geological Survey, 1930)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0811e/report.pdf

Illinois

Illinois State Geological Survey
http://isgs.illinois.edu/

Indiana

Indiana Geological Survey
http://igs.indiana.edu/

Indiana Limestone Institute of America
http://iliai.com/

Indiana Limestone Nomenclature (Indiana Geological Survey)
http://igs.indiana.edu/compendium/comp3mzo.cfm

Iowa

Iowa Geological Survey
http://www.iihr.uiowa.edu/igs/

Kansas

Kansas Geological Survey
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/kgs.html

Kentucky

Kentucky Geological Survey
http://www.uky.edu/KGS/

Louisiana

Louisiana Geological Survey
http://www.lgs.lsu.edu/

Maine

Maine Geological Survey
http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mgs/index.shtml

Maryland

Maryland Geological Survey
http://www.mgs.md.gov/

Building Stone of Maryland (Maryland Geological Survey)
http://www.mgs.md.gov/geology/building_stones_of_maryland.html

Massachusetts

Office of the Massachusetts State Geologist
http://www.geo.umass.edu/stategeologist/

The building stones of Boston and vicinity (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Geology, 1903)
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/10043

Michigan

Michigan Geological Survey
http://wmich.edu/geologysurvey

Minnesota

Minnesota Geological Survey
http://www.mngs.umn.edu/

Mississippi

Mississippi Office of Geology
http://www.deq.state.ms.us/MDEQ.nsf/page/Geology_home

Missouri

Missouri Geological Survey
http://www.dnr.mo.gov/geology/

Montana

Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology
http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/

Nebraska

Nebraska Geological Survey
http://snr.unl.edu/csd/

Nevada

Nevada Bureau of Mines & Geology
http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/

New Hampshire

New Hampshire Geological Survey
http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/gsu/index.htm

New Jersey

New Jersey Geological Survey
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/index.html

New Mexico

New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources
http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/

New York

New York State Geological Survey
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/nysgs/

North Carolina

North Carolina Geological Survey
http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/lr/geological_home

North Dakota

North Dakota Geological Survey
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/

Ohio

Ohio Division of Geological Survey
http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/

Building Stones in the Vicinity of Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio (Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources)
http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/portals/geosurvey/PDFs/Tours_Walking_Drivin...

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Geological Survey
http://www.ogs.ou.edu/homepage.php

Oregon

Oregon Department of Geology & Mineral Industries
http://www.oregongeology.org/sub/default.htm

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Geological Survey
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/index.aspx

Pennsylvania Bluestone Association
http://www.pabluestoneassoc.com/

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Geological Survey
http://web.uri.edu/geo/rhode-island-geological-survey/

South Carolina

South Carolina Geological Survey
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/geology/

South Dakota

South Dakota Geological Survey
http://www.sdgs.usd.edu/

Tennessee

Tennessee Division of Geology
http://www.tn.gov/environment/geology/

Texas

Texas Bureau of Economic Geology
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/

Utah

Utah Geological Survey
http://geology.utah.gov/

Building Stones of Downtown Salt Lake City: A walking tour (Utah Geological Survey)
http://geology.utah.gov/tour_maps/slc_bldg_stone_tour/index.html

Vermont

Vermont Geological Survey
http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/geo/vgs.htm

Barre Granite Association
http://www.barregranite.org/

Virginia

Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources
http://dmme.virginia.gov/DGMR/divisiongeologymineralresources.shtml

Washington

Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources
http://www.dnr.wa.gov/ResearchScience/GeologyEarthSciences/Pages/Home.aspx

West Virginia

West Virginia Geology & Economic Survey
http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey
http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org/

Wyoming

Wyoming State Geological Survey
http://www.wsgs.wyo.gov/

*

District of Columbia

Building Stones of Our Nation's Capitol (U.S. Geological Survey)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/stones/index.html

Building Stones and Geomorphology of Washington, D.C. (Robbins and Welter)
http://www.gswweb.org/oconnor-fieldtrip.pdf

Puerto Rico

[None available.]

Guam

[None available.]

American Samoa

[None available.]

U.S. Virgin Islands

[None available.]

Northern Mariana Islands

[None available.]

Industry Organizations

Barre Granite Association
http://www.barregranite.org/

Building Stone Institute (BSI)
http://www.buildingstoneinstitute.org/

Elberton Granite Association
http://www.egaonline.com/

Indiana Limestone Institute of America
http://iliai.com/

International Masonry Institute
http://www.imiweb.org/

Marble Institute of America
http://www.marble-institute.com/

Monument Builders of North America
http://www.monumentbuilders.org/

National Building Granite Quarries Association
http://www.nbgqa.com/

National Slate Association
http://slateassociation.org/

National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association
http://www.nssga.org/

Pennsylvania Bluestone Association
http://www.pabluestoneassoc.com/

General Resources

National Geologic Map Database (U.S. Geological Survey)
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngmdb/ngmdb_home.html

International Chronostratigraphic Chart (International Commission on Stratigraphy)
http://www.stratigraphy.org/index.php/ics-chart-timescale

Stone Quarries and Beyond
An excellent collection of historical resources concerning geology, the quarry industry, stone carving, stone buildings, and more.
http://quarriesandbeyond.org/

Heritage Stone Task Group (HSTG)
A specialist working group of the International Union of Geological Sciences set up to discuss and promote a proposed new international designation, Global Heritage Stone Resource, for hisorically significant quarries. The designation aims to promote greater prominence for natural stone that has been used in artistic and architectural masterpieces, and heritage building, as well as routine historic stone applications.
http://www.globalheritagestone.org/

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