GIA Museum Acquires Highlights of the Joel and Barbara Hauser Mineral Collection
GIA’s museum has acquired 63 ornamental minerals of exceptional size and quality, made possible through a generous donation by the family of Joel and Barbara Hauser. Many of the pieces are from localities with restricted access or that are no longer producing. These serve as prime learning tools for students and visitors to GIA about mineral formation and lapidary artistry. Nearly 50 of these minerals went on view at the Institute’s Carlsbad museum on Nov. 9 2016. For more than 60 years, native Californian Joel Hauser ardently pursued his hobby of collecting agates, geodes, ornamental minerals and petrified wood. His decades