The Monnig collection of meteorites
By: Arnaud Mignan
Tags: Collectibles, Natural History, Collector, Meteorites, Museums

Each specimen of the original Monnig Collection [2] can be identified by a collection inventory number, which is directly painted on the specimen, in white. Each identifier starts with the letter M for Monnig, followed by two numbers separated by a dot, the first number being the location index and the second one the specimen number (Figs. 2–3). Monnig hired Glenn Huss and his wife Margaret [3] of the American Meteorite Laboratory (AML) to catalog and label every specimen of his collection. It is no surprise then that this inventory system is reminiscent of the AML numbering system (Huss, 1976; Fig. 6). The cataloguing and labelling was done during the hand-over of the collection to TCU. Ehlmann (1996) wrote:

[Glenn Huss and his wife] spent over a month in 1981 on site in Fort Worth and continued helping with the organization and identification of some of the specimens until Glenn’s untimely death on September 28, 1991.

Fig. 6 | Example of AML Huss inventory number (bottom line), here H283.6, the H meaning Huss, 283 the Forest City fall and 6 the 6th catalogued stone. A similar system was used by Huss to catalog the Monnig collection, replacing the H by an M. Source: The Tricottet Collection.

The match between these inventory numbers (coined “TCU-Huss” numbers by Mignan and Reed, 2012) and meteorite locations is provided in the two Monnig / TCU catalogues (Ehlmann, 1996; 2008; Figs. 1, 5). Meteorite specimens from the Monnig Collection deaccessioned by the TCU often come with a modern printout TCU label (not shown).

When Monnig passed away in 1999, several millions of dollars from his estate were donated to the TCU Geology Department, allowing the opening of the world class Oscar Monnig Meteorite Gallery to the public in 2003 (Kunetka, 2003). The collection included 1,370 meteorites as of 2008 (Ehlmann, 2008). It now contains over 2,300 different meteorites (as of 2019) and is constantly growing (see TCU Monnig Meteorite Gallery).

Monnig correspondence letters: Insights into his life

The TCU collection also includes an invaluable archive of manuscripts and correspondence letters from the Monnig estate. Ehlmann (1996) wrote:

Perhaps as a result of his law training, Oscar was meticulous in keeping files of correspondence, notes on meteorite investigative trips, maps of locations, submitted manuscripts, records of payments for meteorites, etc. The files contain letters representing a veritable honor roll of the famous names in meteoritics, such as Nininger, Leonard, LaPaz, Henderson, and many others […] The letters which are most informative about Oscar’s personality, however, are the letters to various farm and ranch landowners, about their meteorites or their meteor(wrongs), as he jokingly put it. Basically a very humble man, Oscar never disregarded the feelings of even the most uneducated, illeterate people to whom he wrote.

Selected letters and other ephemera from the Monnig estate can be found in Ehlmann (2008:20–72). Other letters are shown in Figure 7, this time written by Monnig to Elbert A. King (1935–1998), the first NASA lunar rock curator. They give us an intimate account of his life as businessman and collector. The first letter (dated 11 November 1963) is both bitter and critical of the NASA space program and denies the request for samples: “It is neither easy nor pleasant to answer your kind letter of Nov. 5th because I am not willing to part with any of the meteorites in the collection here. I cannot say that I am entirely sympathetic with the expenditures of NASA or its activities, which I feel have gone entirely too far and too fast. I greatly resent the present estate and income tax system…” The letter ends as follows: “Most of the collection here is in storage […] I couldn’t even show you much if you were in Ft. Worth so I cannot encourage that expenditure. I do not mean to be discourteous…”. Monnig, part of a family’s wholesale and retail business, illustrates how the NASA space program was negatively perceived by some, here despite the man’s passion for space research! (read more on this in ‘Live from the Moon: The Societal Impact of Apollo’ by Andrew Chaikin). In a second letter (dated 26 September 1974), Monnig explains his need of eyewitness reports to establish the path of the 17 Aug. 1974 San Antonio fireball and the possible area of fall. However he adds: “I agree with you that with all this lapse of time (and rain, rain rain) the matter is pretty hopeless.” Monnig then indicates that his “meteorite collection is largely inaccessible in some 10 or 12 boxes in our vault at the wholesale building.” We also learn that Monnig had been elected president of his family business in the 1974 spring.