MB Bianchi MineralsThe Mark Bianchi Mineral Collection

The Mark Bianchi Mineral Collection

About five decades
in the field.

A growing digital archive of one collector's specimens, labels, localities, and stories — with a special focus on the mineral heritage of New Jersey.

Explore the collection Read Mark's story →
About the collection

A lifetime preserved in stone.

For about fifty years, Mark Bianchi was an active field mineral collector. He collected throughout New Jersey and beyond, returning again and again to the quarries and exposures that made northern New Jersey famous among mineral collectors.

This archive is being created to preserve the collection together with its original provenance: Mark's labels, collecting localities, dates, photographs, and the stories behind individual specimens.

The collection

Selected specimens

The catalog is just beginning. These first five cataloged specimens are the start of a much larger archive.

Original handwritten mineral label from the Mark Bianchi Collection

An original handwritten collection label. Preserving labels alongside specimens is a central part of this archive.

Mark's story

Collector, field collector, and keeper of New Jersey mineral history.

Mark Bianchi spent about five decades collecting minerals in the field. His collecting history includes many of New Jersey's classic localities, among them Paterson and Upper New Street, Prospect Park, Braen/Haledon, Chimney Rock, Houdaille/Little Falls, Millington, and many others.

His collection grew not simply through acquisition, but through years of searching, digging, quarry visits, friendships with other collectors, and careful preservation of specimens. Today, the collection remains together in the care of his family.

This biography is intentionally brief for the first version of the archive. It will expand as photographs, field notes, labels, collecting stories, and historical research are assembled.

Field collecting

New Jersey localities

Mark collected at many sites over the course of his life. The locality archive will grow as the collection is cataloged.

01

Paterson / Upper New Street

Passaic County

02

Prospect Park

Passaic County

03

Braen / Haledon

Passaic County

04

Chimney Rock

Somerset County

05

Houdaille / Little Falls

Passaic County

06

Millington

Somerset County

07

Fanwood Quarry

Somerset County

A living archive

More than a specimen gallery.

The long-term goal of BianchiMinerals.com is to document the specimens themselves while preserving the context that gives them meaning: original labels, exact localities, collecting dates, field photographs, notable finds, friendships, and the history of Mark's years in the field.

New records will be added as the collection is photographed and cataloged.