The meteorite collection

The Natural History Museum of Vienna possesses one of the largest collections of meteorites in the world. With over 1 700 pieces, it lies in fourth place, behind the U.S. National Museum in Washington, D.C.; the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, which has the largest collection of meteorites from Antarctica, and the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Not only is the Viennese collection large, it also has the longest history of all meteorite collections and was and remains an important research centre. Meteorites were already collected in Vienna when they were still regarded as earthly phenomena (meteorite ~ aerolite ~ air stone). Of course, one could always find materials in the wonder cabinets of the rulers which had fallen to earth and which, depending on the circumstances, were regarded as lucky or unlucky talismans. Although some cases of matter falling to earth had been observed by hundreds of witnesses, the scientific authorities of the day regarded these as somewhat irregular earthly phenomena. During this period of total disregard for meteorites, two masses of iron fell to earth in Hraschina near Zagreb, Croatia. The fall occurred on 26 May 1751, only a few years after Emperor Franz I had acquired the Baillou natural history collection (1748). The Emperor ordered a report on the fall from the episcopal syndicate in Zagreb. The report was delivered to the court in July, together with the iron masses. The most important piece was incorporated in the Imperial Treasury, and from there, it soon came to be included in the Imperial Natural History Collection. The 39 kg iron mass from Hraschina became the founding piece of the Viennese meteorite collection.

This intellectual proof could have remained useless since, despite a string of occurrences, the scientific opinion of the times (led by the Academie Française) had not changed. Only after the stone rain of L’Aigle (26 April 1803) did the situation change. A member of the Academie, Jean Baptiste Biot, produced a report, and Messrs. Thenard and Vanquelin, along with the British chemist Howard, examined the stones. Meteorites have been acknowledged as extra-terrestrial objects ever since that time.

Stütz’s successor, Carl von Schreibers, was very interested in meteorites. He studied them intensively and inspired many of his contemporaries to investigate them. Among others, his friend Aloys von Widmanstätten, Director of the Imperial Factory Products Cabinet, began to study the extra-terrestrial iron. He described the so-called "Widmanstätten figures", named after him. Schreibers and Widmanstätten also worked together with other renowned scientists of the time in order to discover more about meteorites.

The chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth made analyses in Berlin of samples from Vienna, which were the first analyses ever made of stone and iron meteorites. Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Friedrich Wöhler also co-operated on this project. Carl von Schreibers can be regarded as the founder of meteoric science and he construed the study of meteoric science in the same way as it is followed today, i.e., on the basis of interdisciplinary research. Today, all natural sciences interact closely in order to extract the cryptic messages from the solar nebula carried by the meteorites.

The outbreak of the first World War and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire brought these research activities to an abrupt halt. Austria was fighting for survival and the curators were fighting to save their collections. Modest research activities took place under the leadership of Hermann Michel, but these were rudely interrupted by the second World War. Again, the major activity was confined to maintaining existing collections. Michel was able to preserve everything virtually intact throughout the war. However, the end of the war was not the end of it all: The occupying forces expressed interest and again, it was a battle to maintain possession of the collections. Hermann Michel had to resist Russian officers and Hubert Scholler had to repulse strong attacks made by the American side.

The meteorite collection only began to grow again in the 1970s. The collections came to life after the extension of the laboratories. A budget for purchases permitted the acquisition of select contemporary falls and discoveries. A large fund-raising drive organised by the "Friends of the Natural History Museum of Vienna" resulted in the acquisition of the "Second Huss Collection of Meteorites" from the USA - the first acquisition of this magnitude in the history of the museum. This collection of 125 meteorites, many of which are main pieces, partly made up for the long war years, during which no new items were acquired. Lately, two further collections of meteorite finds from the Sahara have been added, which constitute very important statistical data on the falls of meteorites during the last 100 000 years. These collections also contain several rare types of meteorites. In 1997, the historically valuable meteorite collection of Johann G. Neumann was acquired. Neumann had discovered the "Neumann bands" meteoritic kamacite.

Since the 1960s, the meteorites in the collection have again been used intensively for research purposes. In addition, during recent years, also cosmic dust has been extensively studied. This material has only been available for research since the beginning of the 1990s, thanks to the efforts of Michel Maurette (CNRS, Orsay) in making it available to science. This dust ("micrometeorites") comprises the main mass of extra-terrestrial material falling to Earth today. The Natural History Museum of Vienna possesses several hundred of these objects.