ROBERT M. LINSLEY GEOLOGY MUSEUM
The Robert M. Linsley Geology Museum exhibits minerals, rocks, and fossils, highlighting the beauty and wonder of these objects while also informing visitors about how geologists study the Earth. Threaded throughout the museum is a specific focus on what we know about New York State's geologic past.
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Museum hours are Monday thru Friday: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Summer hours are 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. For a virtual tour of the Museum, click here.
Who was Robert M. Linsley?
The Robert M. Linsley Geology Museum is dedicated to Professor Linsley who from 1955 to 1992, enraptured and inspired Colgate students with his superb teaching and love for geology. A paleontologist, Professor Linsley taught courses on invertebrate fossils, evolution, and the history of life. His research interests focused on the functional morphology, classification, and origin of gastropod mollusks (snails). Bob is fondly remembered for his enthusiastic teaching style, resounding laughter, and ever-present bottle of Coke.
The Collection
We are fortunate to have many specimens of exceptional quality in the museum including spectacular gems and mineral clusters, and well-preserved fossils of scorpion-like eurypterids, large dipleura trilobites, a seven-foot-long mammoth tusk, and a fossilized dinosaur egg, just to name a few.
On the wall above the fossil cases, a mural by local artist, Rachel Amann, depicts what life in Hamilton would have been like 375 million years ago when these organisms lived here. Nearby, a wall of skulls illustrates the mass extinction of large-bodied animals that occurred around 15,000 years ago, and questions its possible connection to the climate change and increasing human impacts that were taking place at that time.
