Colonel George Gibbs

George Gibbs III (January 7, 1776 – August 6, 1833) seems to be best known for his mineral collection and the fact that the mineral gibbsite is named for him. He was a wealthy merchant born in Rhode Island on January 7, 1776. His parents were George Gibbs, Jr. and Mary Channing. During a long sojourn abroad beginning in 1796, he bought the mineral collections of Count Gregorii Razumovsky and Jean Gigot d'Orcy . He continued to collect minerals and eventually acquired the 20,000-specimen collection which he sold to Yale in 1825 for $20,000. He died on August 6, 1833.