GOLD Books for Adults

Part of the Gold exhibition.

  • DK Handbooks: Rocks and Minerals

    by Chris Pellant and Henry Taylor
    This beautifully photographed book contains thorough geologic information. It includes a discussion of crystal formation and explains igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Activities include how to test minerals and rock hunting and collecting tips. 
    Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 1992. ISBN: 1564580334

  • Dictionary of Geology and Mineralogy

    This paperback is an inexpensive standard reference for students, teachers, or hobbyists. 
    McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. ISBN: 0071410449

  • A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals

    by Frederick H. Plough
    A classic field guide: distinguishing characteristics of rocks and minerals, chemical formula, crystal systems of minerals, diagrams, photographs, and more.
    Houghton Mifflin, 1976. ISBN: 0395240476

  • Gold: The Noble Mineral

    ExtraLapis English No. 5
    A go-to-volume for anything gold-related. The authors of this lavishly illustrated book explore gold's mineralogy, history, and modern efforts to extract it.
    Lapis International, 2003. ISBN: 0-971 5371-5-1

  • Minerals (A Firefly Guide)

    by Alessandro Guastoni, Roberto Appiani (Photographer)
    Beyond the beautiful illustrations and requisite field-guide fare, this book contains sections of the use of minerals in art. This includes the minerals used by early humans in cave paintings as well as the ancient Egyptian use of malachite, lazurite, beryl, and other precious minerals.
    Firefly Books, 2005. ISBN: 1554070562

  • The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession

    by Peter L. Bernstein
    The author is an economist whose sense of humor comes through his storytelling of humankind¹s great fixation with gold. He narrates the tale with fascinating threads, describing the history of gold and the creation of money and its effect on the global economy. 
    John Wiley & Sons, 2004. ISBN: 0470091002

  • River of Gold: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte

    by Pamela Hearne and Robert J. Sharer, editors
    This catalog, based on the traveling exhibition River of Gold, describes the excavations in 1940 by UPenn archaeologists at the cemetery site of Sitio Conte in central Panama. It's a readable scholarly catalog with color plates of the spectacular objects, and an appendix that describes current understandings of Sitio Conte manufacturing techniques.
    The University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 1992. ISBN: 0-934718-91-1

  • The World Rushed in: The California Gold Rush Experience

    by J. S. Holliday
    This is the story of the California gold rush as told through the real journal of prospector William Swain. It begins with the first newspaper mention of the gold strike, details Swain's peers, and the hardships and fears in the undertaking. 
    Touchstone, 1983. ISBN: 067125538X