Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Dec. 10, 2003

Two reasons to visit Houston vs. 500,000

The full page ad read, "We've got 500,000 reasons to head to Houston." All the zeros were pictured as pearls and the text went on to explain the Museum of Natural Science in that Texas city was featuring an exhibition of the most spectacular collection of pearls ever assembled - nearly half a million in all! Called simply Pearls, the showing had been organized by the American Museum of Natural History, NY in collaboration with the Field Museum, Chicago.

It had taken only two reasons to lure us to Houston. We were there visiting our son and his wife-to-be, and on a rainy day the four of us headed to the museum to check out those 500,000 reasons. We entered a room dark except for the lighted glass vaults holding the precious pearls. The crowd moved slowly, reading the history of each exhibit. The very first glass case held the pearl necklace DiMaggio gave Marilyn Monroe on their honeymoon.

Room after room was filled with dazzling displays of precious pearls of all sizes and colors. There was a brooch given to Queen Victoria, magnificent pieces of jewelry embedded with pearls, clothing embellished with pearls including religious vestments. As a native of Ohio I was amazed at one exhibit of pearl jewelry that had been found in the Hopewell Indian mounds in Ohio dating back to as early as 1000 B.C.

Several areas were bright with natural light and included visual presentations on harvesting and other labor involved in finding pearls. Poorly paid divers were involved in this precarious occupation. Strong lungs were necessary. The diver was hooked to a heavy rock with a long rope and he held a basket to hold any oysters he found in the 30 to 60 foot depths. A second man released the rope and the weight of the rock plunged the diver down, down. In the space of a minute the diver searched for oysters with his hands and then pulled on the rope to be hauled up. Often the basket was empty and if a dozen oysters were found the dive was considered good. After a very short rest the diver went back again and again.

Along the beach workers opened shells looking for pearls. One expert estimates it takes at least 100,000 oysters to get enough pearls for just one necklace. It takes at least three years for an oyster to produce a quality pearl. Referred to as "Queen of Gems" the pearl is ranked among the most famous jewels of the world and were mentioned in the ancient literatures of India and China.

Pearls are gifts from the waters of the sea, lakes, streams and rivers. Unlike other gems their perfect shape needs no cutting or polishing. Those very early saltwater natural pearls came from the Persian Gulf and places familiar to us through today's headlines, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Qatar and Iran. World War II dealt a blow to the oyster beds producing the pristine pearls of the Persian Gulf but the death blow came when the search for more and more oil in that area polluted the Gulf and wiped out the natural pearls.

Quietly in both Japan and China there were oyster farmers experimenting on both salt water and freshwater oysters to produce pearls with help from humans. In nature, if a foreign body slips into the oyster, it responds by forming layer after layer of pearl around the offending object. The farmers learned how to mimic nature artificially in this nucleating stage. They preferred mussel shells as the foreign body.

The late John Latendresse of Canton, TN became the prime exporter of freshwater mussel shells taken from the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers to oyster farms in Japan. The invasion of those waters by the zebra mussel ended most of that traffic.

We spent about four hours gazing at half a million lustrous pearls. Pink pearls from a Queen Conch in the Caribbean, bright orange Melo pearls, blue-green and black pearls - so many pearls it was difficult to sort them all out. From less than attractive mollusks, oysters, snails, conch and abalones the beauteous pearl was formed. As visitors left the exhibit they had to pass through the gift shop offering, what else, affordable pearl items.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.