May 21, 1974

May 21, 1974 A signing ceremony is held in the Secretary’s Parlor to establish the Edward P. Henderson Meteorite Fund. The fund, named in honor of the benefactor, a curator emeritus of the National Museum of Natural History, is the first large endowment specifically designed for the study of meteorites in the history of the Smithsonian.

The photo shows Edward Porter Henderson (1898-1992) in a corner of the mineralogical laboratory in the Department of Geology. Henderson specialized in the study of meteorites for the Natural History Museum. He was a chemist at the United States Geological Survey from 1920 to 1929. In 1929, he was appointed Curator of Physical and Chemical Geology in the Department of Geology at Natural History, where he remained until his retirement as Curator of the Division of Meteorites in the Department of Mineral Sciences, in 1965. He is noted for development of the national collections, research techniques, field work and post-war work in Japan for the United States Army.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives

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