Oscar Monnig
The Texas businessman and amateur astronomer who built one of the finest private meteorite collections and gave it to a university.
Key facts
- Born
- 1897
- Died
- 1999
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Collector and amateur astronomer
Oscar Edward Monnig ran a family dry-goods business in Fort Worth, Texas, but his passion was astronomy. He observed the sky, wrote for amateur astronomers and in the 1930s began to collect meteorites.
Like Harvey Nininger, Monnig realised that farmers and ranchers were the people most likely to find meteorites. He spread the word across Texas and nearby states, offering to examine rocks and buy genuine meteorites, and over the years he acquired specimens from hundreds of different falls and finds, many of them new to science. He kept detailed letters and records of where each one came from.
Monnig donated his collection to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, starting in the 1970s. The Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Collection is one of the largest university meteorite collections in the world, and a public gallery there displays many of its specimens.
Monnig lived to the age of 101. His story shows how a dedicated amateur, by working with local people and keeping careful records, can add hundreds of meteorites to science.