Mr. Theodore Halkin has joined the 

 Museum's staff as an artist-consultant 

 for the Department of Anthropology's 

 exhibition program. Halkin has exhib- 

 ited nationally and internationally since 

 receiving a Master of Science degree in 

 art from Southern Illinois University in 

 1952. He has also obtained a Bachelor 

 of Fine Arts degree from the Art Insti- 

 tute. Halkin has taught painting, draw- 

 ing, and art history at Northwestern 

 University and has lectured at the Art 

 Institute. He is currently teaching in 

 the Fine Arts Program at the University 

 of Chicago's Downtown Center. Pres- 

 ently, he and Dr. Kenneth Starr, Cura- 

 tor of Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnology, 

 are planning the renovation and rein- 

 stallation of the Museum's Hall of Tradi- 

 tional Chinese and Tibetan Civilization. 



Mrs. Meta P. Howell, Librarian, and 

 Mrs. M. Eileen Rocourt, Associate Li- 

 brarian, attended the annual convention 

 of the Special Libraries Association held 

 recently in San Francisco. While in the 

 area, the opportunity was taken to visit, 

 among others, the libraries of the Uni- 

 versity of California at Berkeley, Stan- 

 ford University, and the San Francisco 

 Academy of Sciences. The following 

 week Mrs. Howell toured the University 

 of Arizona library. 



Mrs. Paula R. Nelson, Public Rela- 

 tions Counsel, has accepted an invitation 

 to join the Executive Committee of the 

 Science Assembly of the Adult Educa- 

 tion Council of Greater Chicago. The 

 committee will plan a series of science 

 programs to be presented to the general 

 public by the Adult Education Council 

 during the fall and winter months. 



Mrs. Nelson is also a newly appointed 

 member of the Education Committee of 

 the Publicity Club of Chicago. 



Dr. Donald Collier, Curator of South 

 American Archaeology and Ethnology, 

 delivered two lectures on ancient Peru- 

 vian archaeology at the University of 

 Illinois in Urbana. 



Free Concert 



Free Concerts Foundation, in its sec- 

 ond program of the 1961-62 season, will 

 present a Koussevitzky Memorial Con- 

 cert direct from its premiere performance 

 in the Library of Congress in Washing- 

 ton. The program to be given in the 

 James Simpson Theatre on Tuesday, 

 November 21, at 8:30 p.m. is one of 

 several events scheduled in many parts 

 of the world in honor of Serge Kousse- 

 vitzky. 



Featured artists for the memorial con- 

 cert will be the Festival Winds, a wood- 

 wind quintet, and Harriet Wingreen, 

 pianist. Three years ago, this group re- 

 corded the Concerto for Piano and Wood- 

 wind Quintet by Wallingford Riegger, a 

 work commissioned by the Koussevitzky 

 Music Foundation and which will be 

 heard at the November 21st concert. 

 Other compositions to be performed are : 

 Dialogues for Clarinet and Piano by 

 George Rochberg; Eight Pieces for Un- 

 accompanied Flute by Paul Hindemith; 

 Three Pieces for Flute, Clarinet, and 

 Bassoon by Walter Piston; and Duo for 

 Flute and Oboe by Ginastera. 



December Exhibit Preview 



"Prehistoric Art of the Libyan Sa- 

 hara," an exhibition of actual-size, 

 watercolor reproductions of Neolithic 

 Age rock paintings discovered recently 

 in Africa, opens in Stanley Field Hall 

 on December 1. 



The paintings, which date from about 

 6,000 to 2,000 B.C., depict hunting 

 scenes, tribal life, battles, and magic 

 religious rites. They will remain on dis- 

 play in the Museum through January 2. 



Winter Hours 



Beginning November 1 and continu- 

 ing through February, the Museum will 

 be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 



4 p.m. except on Saturdays and Sun- 

 days, when it will remain open until 



5 p.m. On Thanksgiving Day, Novem- 

 ber 23, regular hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

 will be observed. 



Messengers- 



(Continued from page 3) 



quarter of the 19th Century, the spade 

 work for the study of meteorites was 

 done and the essential distinguishing fea- 

 tures of meteorites were made out. Chem- 

 ical investigation of various stony and 

 metallic substances which at different 

 times are said to have fallen on the earth 

 revealed that nickel characterized most 

 such specimens. It was also found that 

 meteoric stones were made chiefly of sil- 

 ica and magnesia and that many of them 

 contained certain spheroidal bodies or 

 chondrules, which differ from any known 

 terrestrial rock. It was further noted 

 that the iron sulphide of meteorites was 

 distinct from the terrestrial mineral, py- 

 rite. 



Almost contemporaneous with these 

 findings came the discovery of the most 

 interesting and peculiar structural fea- 

 ture of iron meteorites and one that dis- 

 tinguishes them from all terrestrial irons. 

 The structure is displayed in the form of 

 a network of intersecting bands known 

 as Widmanstattian figures, so named 

 after their discoverer, Alois von Wid- 

 manstatten of Vienna, who first observed 

 them by heating a section of the Agram 

 iron meteorite. 



Thus the essential data for distinguish- 

 ing meteorites from terrestrial bodies — 

 the presence of nickel, chondrules in 

 stones, and Widmanstattian figures in 

 irons — were early at hand and it was 

 possible to collect the "sky stones" even 

 when they had not been seen to fall. 

 Systematic efforts to collect meteorites, 

 however, were not made for many years. 



Even by the middle of the 19th Cen- 

 tury the collections of the leading Euro- 

 pean museums, especially those of Vienna, 

 Paris, and London, hardly represented 

 more than fifty falls each. Greater in- 

 terest in the subject, however, began to 

 be aroused during the next two decades 

 (1850-70), and meteorites began to be 

 collected more rapidly. For many years, 

 the Vienna collection remained in the 

 lead, and its successive curators, Partsch, 

 Homes, Brezina, and Berwerth, were 

 zealous students of the subject. We owe 

 (Continued on next page) 



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