Julia Hufnagel-Schildbach (1880–1962) – the most significant woman – collector of minerals in Bohemia and her collection at the National Museum in Prague

Abstract

Julia H. Schildbach (*1880, †1962) from Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně) built around 1900–1935 an extensive systematic collection of minerals. Minerals were bought, exchanged and personally collected at localities in the wide vicinity of Mariánské Lázně. She had extensive contacts with collectors of minerals in Bohemia and Germany and professional mineralogists in Austria and Bohemia, including mineralogists from the National Museum in Prague. After the end of World War II, she was not evicted as a German from Marienbad, unlike other German inhabitants, but lived in her home town until she died. However, her collection of minerals was confiscated by the state after the war. The larger part of the collection has been transferred to the National Museum in Prague, where 2716 items of minerals from the collection of J. Schildbach are registered, and part of the collection has been transferred to the Municipal Museum in Mariánské Lázně.