Historical information

The Museum of the Ballarat School of Mines was established in 1872. The curator in 1882 was Ferdinand Krause.
Prefatory Notice by James Oddie). The want of a guide through the technical collections of The School Mines has long been felt by visitors and students - a guide, not so much to those who merely 'look' at the various exhibits in the Museum, but an instructor to those who desire to take away with them some practical information on the natural occurrence and economical value of the objects exhibited. This want is being filled by the labour of Mr. Krause, whose first installment - 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Minerals' - is herewith represented to the visiting public."
Introduction to the catalogue: " The collection is still in its early growth, and far from being a complete representation of the Mineral Kingdom; many varieties, species, and even whole groups are absent. This state of incompleteness will, no doubt, be adjusted in the sequence, and progressive lists issued from time to time. 'Ad interin' the present catalogue will, be found useful to students and visitors of the School.
As far as practicable, the classifications of the minerals accords with that adopted at the Royal School of Mines, London.
The numbers prefixed to the species in the catalogue agree with those on the descriptive labels which accompany each specimen, and also with those attached to the specimens themselves.
On the descriptive labels the chemical composition of the minerals is expressed in formulae usually employed in standard mineralogical works. Students who have note paid attention to mineralogical chemistry will note that each dot over a symbol is equivalent to one atom of oxygen, .... A bar through a symbol denotes a double atom of the base, .... "
In 1882 the collection was housed in 33 cases. The catalogue outlines the specimen types housed in each case.

Physical description

Brown soft covered book of 94 pages with gold lettering on the front. The book includes a plan of the museum layout, plan of the grounds and buildings of the Ballarat School of Mines and a prefatory notice by James Oddie. It also includes handwritten notes by Curator Ferdinand Krause.

.2) Business card of I.H. Barbery, engraver with F.W. Niven. The lithography of the plan of the Ballarat School of Mines at the back of the catalogue was undertaken by F.W. Niven.

Inscriptions & markings

Handwritten inclusion of extra entries (probably by Ferdinand Krause).