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The Texas Memorial Museum, which is located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, USA, is named in honor of the 1936 Texas Centennial. The museum's focus is on natural history, including paleontology, geology, biology, herpetology, ichthyology and entomology. At one point, the museum also had exhibits on Texas history, anthropology, geography, and ethnography, but these were relocated to other museums (including the Bullock Texas State History Museum) in 2001. The museum has 75,000 visitors annually. The building was designed in the Art Deco style by John F. Staub, with Paul Cret as supervising architect. Ground was broken for the building by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1936.〔(UT Austin - VRC - Highlights )〕 The museum was opened on January 15, 1939. The museum won "Best of Austin" awards from the Austin Chronicle in 2002 and 2005.〔(Awards Received - Texas Memorial Museum )〕 In October 2013, it was announced that the museum would be losing $400,000 in funding and that the staff would be reduced from twelve employees to four: the museum director, a security guard, a gift shop operator, and one other employee.〔http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2013/10/28/on-campus-museum-set-to-lose-400000-in-funding〕 The museum now is open five days a week and charges admission. ==Wichita County Meteorite== In 1723, the Comanche defeated the Lipan Apache people in a nine-day battle along the Rio del Fierro (Wichita River).〔Dunn, W. E., 1911, Apache Relations in Texas, 1718-1750, in the Texas Historical Association Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3, p. 220〕〔Bolton, H. E., 1914, Athanase de Menzieres and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780, Volume 1, Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, pp. 24-25〕 The River of Iron may be the location written about by Athanase De Mezieres in 1772, containing "a mass of metal which the Indians say is hard, thick, heavy, and composed of iron", which they "venerate...as an extraordinary manifestation of nature", the Comanche's calling it "Ta-pic-ta-carre (rock ), Po-i-wisht-carre (metal ), or Po-a-cat-le-pi-le-carre (rock )", the general area containing a "large number of meteoric masses".〔Bolton, H. E., 1914, Athanase de Menzieres and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780, Volume 1, Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, p. 296〕〔Farrington, O.C., 1909, Meteorites of North America, to January 1, 1909, National Academy of Sciences Volume XIII, p. 486〕 "According to the Indians, the mass was first discovered by the Spaniards, who made several ineffectual attempts to remove it on pack mules but were finally compelled to abandon it on account of its great weight. The Comanches at first endeavored to melt the mass by building large fires around it, but failing in this, they next attempted to break it in pieces, in which they were likewise unsuccessful; they then conceived the idea that it was a wonderful medicine stone and therefore worthy of their most profound regard...it was the custom of all who passed by to deposit upon it beads, arrowheads, tobacco, and other articles as offerings."〔Farrington, O.C., 1909, Meteorites of North America, to January 1, 1909, National Academy of Sciences Volume XIII, p. 486〕 The Wichita County meteorite originally weighed 145 kg and was obtained by Major Robert Neighbors,〔Neighbors, K.F., 1975, ''Robert Neighbors and the Texas Frontier, 1836-1859'', Waco: Texian Press, p. 65 and 172〕 US Indian agent at Fort Belknap, in 1858-1859, who presented it to the State Cabinet, and was displayed in the old Capitol building before it burned down, when this Coarse Octahedrite was turned over to the University of Texas.〔Farrington, O.C., 1909, Meteorites of North America, to January 1, 1909, National Academy of Sciences Volume XIII, p. 487〕 According to Neighbors, "When the meteorite was conveyed to the Indian reserve, the Comanches collected in great numbers around their valued medicine stone and, whilst manifesting their attachment by rubbing their arms, hands, and chests over it, earnestly besought Major Neighbors to permit them to keep it at the agency."〔Farrington, O.C., 1909, Meteorites of North America, to January 1, 1909, National Academy of Sciences Volume XIII, p. 486〕 A sister meteorite weighing 742 kg, the Red River meteorite, was discovered in 1808〔Farrington, O.C., 1909, Meteorites of North America, to January 1, 1909, National Academy of Sciences Volume XIII, p. 488〕 but this Medium Octahedrite now resides in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.〔Farrington, O.C., 1909, Meteorites of North America, to January 1, 1909, National Academy of Sciences Volume XIII, p. 488〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Texas Memorial Museum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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