After spending a lifetime building a 2,500 piece mineral collection, Bertha Kotlow of Slingerlands will now have parts of her collection displayed at the Museum of Science and Innovation (miSci) in Schenectady. Having her collection seen by generations of museum-goers is a dream scenario for this serious collector. “I’ve loved and enjoyed them my whole life, and now I am glad that others get to enjoy them too,” she said. Now 92 years old, Bertha ‘Bert’ Kotlow could no longer fit her massive collection inside her apartment at the Slingerlands retirement home where she now lives. At the suggestion of her youngest son, she decided to donate what is, modestly speaking, a very large and valuable collection. “I’m a pack rat,” she said of her collection. “Once it’s in your blood, you just can’t stop.” Instead of selling her pieces, she and her family agreed placing Kotllow’s collection at miSci felt right. The museum said they are honored and elated to have Kotlow’s additions. Museum Director William Sudduth was particularly interested in some of her local specimen. “He took one look at my collection and said, ‘I want everything,’” said Kotlow.
About 100 of Kotlow’s pieces are now on display at the “Earth Exposed: Discover Our Planet’s Hidden Secrets” exhibit at miSci. The museum’s rock and mineral collection now has over 8,000 specimen. It has been growing since the year after the museum’s opening in 1934. The rest of Kotlow’s collection is housed below the museum. At the Friday, July 17 unveiling of the donations, Kotlow and her family were given lifetime free admission passes to miSci. Kotlow said it’s hard for her to get around now, but is excited to see the rest of the museum. “I had been to the museum years and years ago as a kid, but it’s nothing like it is now. It is a fabulous place,” she said. Even with 2,500 donation of rocks now gone from her Slingerlands home, Kotlow’s residence is still an exhibit of its own. She still has a few pieces on display that she “couldn’t bear to part with.” These include a rare ajoite crystal that Kotlow calls her lucky charm and a blue benotite crystal from California. Other similarly rare specimen now at miSci come from sources that are no longer available.
“When they first find a mine, that’s it. That could be all they’ll find,” she said. “I had opals from Ethiopia that were like that. They would have made a beautiful pendant,” said Kotlow. Her crystals came either from rock shops, such as the one that her friend had in Albany, trade shows, or were collected by her. Kotlow also donated 600 vials of sand sourced from various regions across the globe. Many of these pieces were given to her by traveling friends. Though one might guess Kotlow is a geologist or scientist, she is not. At least not in the professional sense that is. She spent most of her life as a homemaker, raising her three children with her husband. Rather than going to school for geology, as her children once pressured her to do, Kotlow said she found all she needed to know from books. “I’ve forgotten now, but I used to know the names of my rocks,” said Kotlow. That is saying something for a collection that numbers in the thousands. The crystals don’t have a set market price, but people are willing to pay a lot for the crystals they really want, said Kotlow. Some of her crystals, she is sure, are worth a lot more now than they were when she bought them. The rock that sparked her interest in collecting was one she found while walking on the Indian Ladder Trail at Thacher Park as a kid. She remembered accidentally kicking it and then being surprised to find a shining crystal inside. “I don’t ever remember not being fascinated by them,” said Kotlow. “It’s been with me all my life.” Bertha Kotlow’s life’s work is now available for viewing at miSci at 15 Nott Terrace Heights in Schenectady. For more information, go to www.misci.org.