Douglas Robert Harman’s Collection
Douglas Robert Harman was born in London, United Kingdom. His father was a journalist and he instilled in his son a passion for exploring the world, openness and tolerance towards people. Douglas spent every free time at the museums. He spent there whole weekends to watch collections of fossils, minerals and precious stones. And also to learn beautiful handwriting copied from old prints. He graduated from City University London.
He was a member of the elite Diamond Club LTD. He had his booth at Hatton Garden in London. He continued his passions throughout his life. Thanks to his work at Peckham Enterprise, a London-based government organization, he travelled around the world and conducted exploration work aimed at obtaining natural gemstones and their coloured varieties.
He collected various minerals, rocks, fossils, decorative stones and precious stones used in jewellery. He was interested in studying their composition, structure and properties, genesis and origin. To this day, we can admire many specimens from his collection in museums in London, especially in the Natural History Museum in the section devoted to mineralogy.
He also had a large collection of thematic books on gemmology and the necessary professional equipment for the study of crystals, minerals and rocks. Harman studied gemstones and certified their authenticity with gemmological certificates.
In 1992, he moved with his wife to Poland. He established cooperation with Stanisław Krzysztof Jacobson, a well-known diamond expert and gemmologist, who owns a jewellery studio in Gdańsk. The result of this cooperation were articles, translated by his wife Mirosława Harman, written for magazines such as Watches and Jewellery, Top Class and Polski Jubiler, devoted to minerals, precious and decorative stones, and methods of their examination and identification.
He was always surrounded by the sounds of classical music and books, not only related to his passion.
His wish was to donate his collection to the museum so that his collection could be used by others.
After many consultations, his wife Mirosława Harman decided that the Mineralogical Museum of the University of Wrocław would be the best place to display his collection.
