Research Question: Meteorites & Museums

[Mr. Milton Banana]

I'm doing some research for a story I'm writing. I have the following question:

How do museums obtain meteorites? What is the process one has to go through to get a meteorite shown at a museum?

Also-any links discussing this are appreciated as well.

Thanks.

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[01101001]

How do museums obtain meteorites?

Gut instinct tells me they obtain meteorites the same way they acquire anything else they show:

1) Own them.

a) Buy them on the open market.

b) Have them donated.

2) Borrow them.

a) Borrow them from other museums.

b) Borrow them from individuals.

This list may not be exhaustive because I don't know much about museums.

What is the process one has to go through to get a meteorite shown at a museum?

I'd start by calling a museum curator.

[Swift]

Not a direct answer to your question, but it supports 01101001's answer. I used to be friends with the Assistant Curator for the Mineral and Gem collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I know he used to go to a couple of big mineral and gem shows each year, budget in hand, to purchase pieces for the museum's collection.

Here are some items from eBay.

[Mr. Milton Banana]

Thanks for the responses, folks.

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[A Thousand Pardons]

This list may not be exhaustive because I don't know much about museums.

Some museums have their own collectors, for some collections. So, to add to your list,

3) They find them

Whether any museum in the world has meteorite hunters on staff, I dunno.

(or, would that be 1c) ? )

[ChibiVader]

You could always get Indiana Jones to work for your museum and then you'll get all sorts of fun things.

As far as a serious response, from what I understand, most meteorites are donated to larger museums (probably ones that have dontated to funding) after researchers finish with them. From there, they are given out on loan to smaller museums. Some others are owned by NASA or other such organizations and put out on loan. I know NASA does such programs with moon rocks for educational purposes too.

[endeavour]

As a museum curator myself, I can verify that museums obtain meteorite samples via purchase or donation (either from the finders of the meteorite or from third parties: this can include going to gem and mineral shows and suchlike to buy finds) or by participation in geological expeditions which may find meteorites. Some museums (those with good research budgets!) fund their own geological expeditions, which may be specifically to look for meteorites, or in search of other specimens, but they happen to find meteorties as well. Other museums partner with universities to participate in their expeditions. The 'division of spoils' from a joint expedition will be based upon an agreement worked out beforehand, and will usually be related in some way to how much funding each party has contributed.

Museums with large collections of meteorites (or other things) not on dispaly will loan them out to other museums, as has already been noted. Also, some museums do borrow meteorties and other artefacts from individuals or other institutions.

NASA has an excellent program for loaning lunar samples to schools and institutions (I have a very nice Apollo 16 sample on display right now, courtesy of JSC) but I'm not aware of them loaning out meteorite samples. I have had a Mars meteorite sample in a display I worked on a few years back, and that came as a loan from a university as a special arrangement between colleagues.

Milton, you might also want to note for your story purposes that someone can't just turn up at a museum (at least not a major one) and just say "I want to put my meteorite on display". The museum would need to have a specific reason or purpose for displaying such an object and, in the case of a piece without a verifiable 'provenence' (ie: a provable trail of ownership back to its original finding), would probably want to have the sample authenticated before display.

Speak to the curator at a major geological/natural history museum for further details and insight into procedures and exhibition criteria, as each museum has its own practices.

Hope this helps.

[Mr. Milton Banana]

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their responses. I highly appreciate it!

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