METEORITES 11 



From the lobby the visitor first enters Memorial Hall and faces the 

 Statue of marble statue of Morris K. Jesup, third President of the 



Morris K. Jesup Museum. Mr. Jesup was a founder, trustee and bene- 

 factor of the Museum and for twenty-seven years its President. 

 Under his administration and through his liberality the Museum 

 made rapid progress. This statue of Mr. Jesup was executed by 

 William Couper and was presented to the Museum by the Trustees 

 and a few other friends. The marble busts in the wall niches represent 

 noteworthy pioneers of American science, and are the gift of Morris 

 K. Jesup. These include Benjamin Franklin, statesman and natural 

 philosopher, Alexander von Humboldt, geographer and geologist, Louis 

 Agassiz, zoologist, Joseph Henry, physicist, John James Audubon, 

 ornithologist, Spencer Fullerton Baird, zoologist and founder of the 

 United States Fish Commission, James Dwight Dana, geologist, 

 John Torrey, botanist, Edward Drinker Cope, paleontologist, Joseph 

 Leidy, anatomist, and Robert E. Peary, explorer. 



Memorial Hall was once the lecture hall and here thousands have 

 listened to Professor Bickmore. 



Circling this same hall is a portion of the collection of meteorites, 

 „ . popularly known as "shooting stars," ranging in weight 



from a few pounds to 36.5 tons. The greater number of 

 meteorites are stony, but the more interesting ones are composed chiefly 

 of iron, while certain meteorites contain both stone and iron. The 

 toughness of iron meteorites is due to the presence of nickel, and the 

 fact that they were so difficult to cut is said to have led to the adoption of 

 an alloy of nickel and iron in making armor plate for battleships. Meteor- 

 ites have a very definite structure and when polished (see specimens on 

 the right with electric lamp) show characteristic lines which together 

 with their composition are to the expert absolute proof that the speci- 

 mens are meteorites. 



"Ahnighito" at the left is the largest known meteorite in the world 

 and was brought from near Cape York, Greenland, by Admiral Peary in 

 Ahnighito 1897. It weighs more than 36.5 tons and its transporta- 

 Meteorite tion to New York was an engineering feat. The Eskimos 

 called it "toopik" or tent. On the other side of the entrance is the 

 curiously pitted •'Willamette" meteorite from Oregon. This is the 

 third in size of known meteorites. The general collection of meteorites, 

 one item of which is more than 2000 boloids of the famous "Holbrook," 

 Arizona, stone shower, may be found in the corridor beyond the end of 

 the North Pacific Hall on this floor. 



Jadeite Here too is a polished boulder of jade, or jadeite, the 



Boulder second largest ever found. 



