McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Kunz, George Frederick, 1856-1932
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1856-1932
History
George Frederick Kunz was born on September 29, 1856, in New York, New York.
He was a mineralogist and gem expert. He was raised in Hoboken, N.J., and attended public schools and Cooper Union but did not graduate. He taught himself mineralogy from books and field research. This expertise landed him a job with Tiffany & Co., and his knowledge and enthusiasm propelled him into a vice presidency at the age of 23, a position he held until his death. He was in charge of the mining exhibits at the Paris Exposition (1889), the Kimberley, South Africa, Exposition (1892), and the Chicago Columbian Exposition (1893) and was a special agent at the Paris Exposition (1900) and commissioner on radium at the St. Louis Exposition (1904). A gem collector and discoverer, he traveled the world in search of pearls and gemstones. Kunz became a resident member of the American Numismatic and Archeological Society in 1893 and was made a life member in 1913. He served as a link between the Society and Tiffany & Co. and played a role in the company’s production of Columbus medals for the Chicago exposition of 1893. Kunz was active in the Society’s efforts to improve U.S. coinage, proposing the adoption of the metric system. He was a member of the Mineralogical Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences, the New York Mineralogical Club, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and many other cultural, scientific, and naturalist organizations. He wrote, “The Gems and Precious Stones of North America” (1890) and “The Curious Lore of Precious Stones” (1913). He discovered a new gem variety of the mineral spodumene which was named "Kunzite" in his honor.
In 1879, he married Sophia Hanforth (1855-1912) and in 1923, he married Opal Logan Van Zandt Giberson (1896–1967), but the marriage was annulled in 1929. He died on June 29, 1932, in New York, New York.