[meteorite-list] Museum musings

From: Fred Olsen <debfred_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:34 2004
Message-ID: <000701c219a1$24ba1880$eea4510c_at_fred>

Hello List,

My wife Debbie and I just got back from a trip where we visited Meteorite
and Tektite collections in the Smithsonian, The Czech National museum in
Prague, also museums in Brno, Trebic and Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic
and the Natural History Museum in Vienna. My head is still spinning!

Just a few comments while I recover. The Smithsonian remains a world class,
premiere collection with the most "modern" interpretive displays. Really
something Americans can take pride in! My favorite meteorite on display is
the Lafayette; an incredible; oriented, glossy, black-crusted Martian
meteorite. Can your beer do that? Well speaking of beer, takes us to the
Czech Republic (CR). Wow! What a country, so much good beer, so cheap, so
little time. A half-liter of beer in a Brno pub cost about 75 cents.

Now back to other fun. We spent four days in Prague and really enjoyed
ourselves on music, museums, moldavites and meteorites. The National Museum
in Prague has a nice collection of moldavites and classic meteorites, but
what I most remember are three stones of the Pribram fall, sitting crowded
on a small shelf, with a nice description of how they were found after their
arrival on earth was photographically recorded in 1959. Their origin in the
asteroid belt was calculated from the film records.

I also took time while in Prague to visit list member Serguei Vassiliev; who
was most congenial and accommodating. He showed me his collection and I got
a very nice little piece of cheese, I mean Lunar, (Dhofar 081) from him.
Although small, it shows two different lithologies and a glassy green crust.
Thanks again to Serguei!

We were wandering the narrow cobblestone streets back to our hotel after a
night at the opera, when I saw the familiar shape of a trilobite in blue
light looming in the night. It wasn't an apparition; it was a bar. The
Trilobite Bar, but it was late and it was closed. I had hoped to return
for a beer in the Trilobite Bar the next day but never made it back.

We then moved on to Brno, the second largest city in the CR. On the way we
stopped in Kutna Hora which was a major silver producing area when the
Ensisheim stone fell. The mine tour was sold out for the day but there was
a nice rock shop there and I got a copy of the book Moldavites by Vladimir
Bouska, 1994: Prague. It is a very good book and was very helpful in
locating public displays of moldavite.

Just an hour and half south of Brno is Vienna. Other list members have
written on the wonders in the Vienna collections. We got there on Tuesday
the day the museum is closed. I spent quite a bit of time in the Museum on
Wednesday; it is really impressive what you can collect if you have a couple
of hundred years to do it. I collect Colorado meteorites and they have some
nice ones on display, especially the main mass of the oriented stone from
Kramer Creek. I did discover an error in their display. You can correct
your Catalogue of Meteorites: Vienna has 8.7 grams of Canyon City,
California, iron (lllAB) found in 1875. I did not see any Canon City,
Colorado (H5) stone that fell October 27th, 1973. I am afraid they
mislabeled their little iron cube.

The Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf is a star attraction (25,000 year old
limestone statue) in the other wing of the Museum; it is very impressively
displayed in its own totally dark little room except for four little
spotlights inside the glass case with her. It is a must see when visiting
the Vienna Museum. It made me think what should be done with a meteorite in
their collections.

They need to do the same thing for the Cabin Creek, Arkansas iron (lllAB)
Meteorite which is currently crowded into a glass cabinet with a dozen or so
other irons. See Norton's CEM page 53 or Mason's Meteorites pages 40 and 41
to see what I think is the most beautiful iron meteorite on this planet. It
deserves to be put it in a case by itself, but it was still a real treat to
see it in person.

More about Moldavites later. Regards, Fred Olsen
Received on Fri 21 Jun 2002 11:58:53 PM PDT