Field Museum hits meteorite jackpot
Amid months of grim economic news that has been crippling public museums, $3 million worth of rocks from outer space and a $7.3 million endowment landed at the Field Museum today like manna from heaven.
The windfall means that even as museums everywhere cut corners and pare back research, the Field can expand one of its oldest departments: meteorites.
About 20 tons of meteorites fall to Earth from space daily, though most come in pieces too small to notice. Scientists study them for clues about the composition of the solar system and its history, and some rare ones appear to contain organic carbon compounds that may reveal the mysteries of earliest life.
The Field Museum's renowned collection of 2,000 meteorites began with specimens it inherited from the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition. Now it also owns 1,700 meteorites formerly held by the Planetary Studies Foundation, a little-known science education organization with Chicago roots.
The combined space-rock collections -- 6,000 specimens from more than 3,700 meteorites -- will constitute the largest non-government meteorite holding in the world.
The $7.3 million gift comes from the Tawani Foundation, founded by Chicago investor and philanthropist James Pritzker, who developed a deep interest in meteorites over the last 12 years and has joined expeditions to collect them on the vast frozen ice sheets of Antarctica.
The endowment will establish the Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies at the museum, named in honor of James Pritzker's father.
"To have something important like this endowed in perpetuity in these challenging times, this is what we need," said Lance Grande, senior vice president and head of collections at the Field. "We would hope that we could get all our research entities endowed like this."
Made from the same dust and gases that came together long ago to form the solar system, meteorites hit Earth after being caught by its atmosphere. Most are tiny grains that land unnoticed in oceans and remote areas. Occasionally asteroids have slammed into the moon and into Mars, sending chunks of debris from those bodies hurtling down to Earth. Several of these extremely rare meteorites reside at the Field.