A Division of Mineralogy was created as a part of the newly established Department of Geology, United States National Museum (USNM), in 1897. Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, who had served as Honorary Curator of Mineralogy in the USNM since 1883, assumed the same position in the new Division. In 1911, the name was changed to the Division of Mineralogy and Petrology. In 1942, the Division of Mineralogy and Petrology was combined with the Division of Physical and Chemical Geology (Systematic and Applied) under the former name. The Department of Geology was abolished in 1963 as a part of a reorganization in the Museum of Natural History. At that time, the Division of Mineralogy and Petrology became the newly created Department of Mineral Sciences.
Curators and research staff of the Division of Mineralogy and Petrology and its predecessor divisions included Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, Honorary Curator, 1897-1931; Wirt deVivier Tassin, Assistant Curator, 1897-1909; Joseph E. Pogue, Assistant Curator, 1909-1913; Edgar Theodore Wherry, Assistant Curator, 1913-1917; William F. Foshag, Assistant Curator and Curator, 1919-1956; Edward P. Henderson, Associate Curator, 1942-1963; George Switzer, Associate Curator and Curator, 1948-1963; Roy S. Clarke, Chemist, 1957-1963; and Paul E. Desautels, Associate Curator, 1957-1963.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Agency History. Record 218062
