Debra Wilson, B.A.

Biography

Debra was first introduced to minerals by Marc Wilson when they started dating seriously in 1979. She received her first 35-mm camera as a gift from Marc after they married in 1980, and she soon developed a love of photographing minerals. Her first mineral photographs were published in 1984. This naturally led to learning more about minerals from Marc, going to gem and mineral shows (first visit to the Tucson Show in 1986), field collecting with Marc in New Mexico, Arkansas, Michigan, Ohio and Arizona, and eventually working with the Carnegie Museum’s great collection.

When they first moved to Pittsburgh in 1992 for Marc’s new appointment at the Carnegie Museum, Debra served as a volunteer for the Section of Minerals; in 2002 she was put on the payroll as Collection Assistant part-time, then made full-time in 2013 and promoted in August 2017 to Collection Manager following her husband’s retirement.

Debra is a coauthor (with Marc and others) of “Tracing the Source of Native Copper Mineral Specimens with Copper Isotope Values” (Rocks & Minerals, 2016) and is the author of “European Classics from the William W. Jefferis Collection,” (Mineralogical Almanac, 2015).

Her bibliography of published photos is extensive, including books (Mineralogy of Michigan and American Mineral Treasures among others), magazines (Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Attaché magazine – US Airways , Carnegie magazine, ExtraLapis English, JOM (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), Lapidary Journal, Lapis Lithographie, Mineralogical Almanac, The Mineralogical Record, Pittsburgh magazine, Rock & Gem, Rocks & Minerals), newsletters, 14 different newspapers, calendars, postcards, catalogs and websites.