This is the original public announcement to MIAC (Meteorite Impact Advisory Board) of Canada on the disposition of the original Christopher E. Spratt Meteorite collection.
Dated: July 16, 2002 Dear MIAC: I am pleased to report the acquisition, by the National Meteorite Collection of Canada, of the Christopher E. Spratt Meteorite and Tektite Collection. This acquisition was by Deed of Gift, dated December 27, 2001. Subsequently the collection was independently evaluated, and then certified as Canadian Cultural Property at the June 19-21, 2002 meeting of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board. The whole process took over a year. Canadian meteorite collections are scarce. There are probably fewer than 10 of any significance in the country. The largest institutional collections are housed at the Geological Survey of Canada (National Meteorite Collection of Canada), the University of Alberta, Edmonton, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Apart from the Spratt collection, there are probably only 3-4 significant private collections. While the Spratt collection may not be the most extensive private collection in Canada, it is of outstanding cultural significance because of its composition, and because it is a well-documented and well-organized collection that can readily be added to the National Meteorite Collection of Canada, and greatly improve the value and usefulness of the National Collection by the addition. The over 400 meteorites and nearly 800 samples, and the many sources represented worldwide, attest to the zeal with which the collector assembled this collection. It is doubtful that any institution could assemble such a collection within the time frame of 15 years, as it would take the single-minded attention and application of experienced staff, and many resources including salary and purchase costs. The addition of the Spratt collection to the National Meteorite Collection of Canada adds 76 meteorites previously unrepresented, raising the overall representation of worldwide meteorites to about 1100. This maintains the National Collection in the rank of about tenth in the world, a very significant position. In addition it raises the number of samples in the National Collection to over 2700, and increases the duplicate samples of many hundreds of meteorites to the point where portions of the National Collection may now be offered on loan to other scientific institutions in Canada (universities, museums) for research, display and educational purposes, assuming proper curation and security measures are in place. The National Meteorite Collection of Canada, with the addition of the Spratt collection, increases its value as the single most important collection and resource in Canada for promoting research in meteoritics and planetary sciences. This resource is all the more valuable as it anticipates and supports renewed efforts in space exploration by Canada, in co-operation with other countries. While being of excellent research value because of the meteorites represented, there are a number of larger specimens and polished slabs of great display value. The mandate of the National Meteorite Collection of Canada is to acquire and make available for display, education and research, meteorites from Canada and elsewhere. The acquisition of the Spratt collection fully addresses this mandate and extends the potential of the National Meteorite Collection of Canada to support innovative science as well as being the most important Canadian meteorite archive. RKH ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Richard K. Herd, Curator / Conservateur, National Collections / Collections nationales, Geological Survey of Canada / Commission g�ologique du Canada, Natural Resources Canada / Ressources naturelles Canada, 601 Booth Street / 601, rue Booth, Ottawa K1A 0E8 Tel / T�l: (613) 992-4042; 998-0381 Res / R�s: (613) 526-5050 Fax: (613) 954-0481; 943-1286 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] C-�l�c: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
