This is a catalog of mineral specimens held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History at the turn of the 20th century. The specimens are organized by type and location, and many are illustrated. The book is a valuable resource for mineral collectors and researchers. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This catalogue is an alphabetic list of all the types (holotypes, cotypes, paratypes), the subsequently described or figured specimens (plesiotypes), and the artificial casts of type specimens of fossil invertebrates in the Department of Stratigraphic Paleontology of the U. S. National Museum previous to 1905. No account is taken of "typical specimens" nor of such studied material as has served in publications but which is not so recorded in the literature of paleontology and stratigraphic geology.

Part 2 contains lists of types, cotypes, paratypes, and figured specimens (plesiotypes) of vertebrate fossils, paleobotany and plant fossils, and records of various mineralogical and geological materials.