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Nininger Moment #26
The Sale of the Nininger Collection Part 2
With the sale of the first part of the Nininger Collection the
Niningers for the first time in thirty five years were able to pay
off debts, their mortgage, and go on a cruise. Nininger had
carefully filed away many letters from people that had meteorite
related stories that he wish and hoped to someday investigate. While
the sale of the first part of the collection had relieved a number
of the Niningers problems, Harvey was still thinking about how to
dispose of the remaining collection to a suitable home and what to
do about the American Meteorite laboratory that was run by his son
in law Glenn Huss and his daughter Margaret. It was Haveys hope that
the museum would be self sufficient and self supporting. Harvey had
figured that in the 4,600 days of operation that a half million
visitors had visited in that time, that verbal talks and lectures
had been give to groups of 2 to fifty which meant that some 7,000
one hour lectures had been made during that time. Even with this
interest, the American Meteorite Museum couldn't support itself and
the Huss Family.
After the sale of first part of the Nininger Collection and having a
basis to go by for prices, the remaining collection was inventoried
and a price structure was then place on the remaining collection.
The Niningers were shocked to find out that the remaining collection
was worth over a half million dollars. Nininger mentioned the
importance of inventorying his items and a lesson from not doing
that prior to the first sale and his low estimates. The collection
could have been sold for much less than its true value.
Later in the fall of 1959, the Arizona State University indicated a desire to acquire the collection again. With the growing
interest in space, missiles, rockets and satellites meteorites were
an obvious connection to many studies necessary at that time. Many
scientists, institutions were hounding the Niningers with many
requests for material they really didn't want to part with. Again
the Arizona State University expressed an interest in the Nininger
Collection and requested a cost for the remaining collection. A
letter to the Arizona State University was written and an offer to sale
the collection for half the catalog value but they would consider
offers from out of state if definite interest was not shown in a
reasonable amount of time. The interest was on again off again as
they worked to secure the necessary funds. With no firm offers from
the university, the Niningers sent out letters to a number of major
institutions that the remaining Nininger Collection of Meteorites
was available for sale.
Much thought went into how to preserve one of the only museums
dedicated to the science of meteorites but in the 1960s finally the
Niningers decided to close the American Meteorite Museum pack up and
store the Nininger collection in the advent a firm offer was made on
the remaining collection. Finally a firm offer came through after
the slow moving institutional mills completed their operations. The
remaining Nininger Collection was assured a lasting place in the
halls of Arizona State University at a value that was
considered a fair price at $275,000 far below listed value. Four
days later Glenn and Margaret Huss along with their family made the
move to Denver for a new life and to carry on the name and work of
the American Meteorite Lab. An era was over and the museum was gone
forever.
Source: Find A Falling Star By H.H. Nininger
The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by
Harvey Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling.
Some of the items written in the moments might be old out dated
material and the reader is advised to keep this in mind.
--AL Mitterling
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