A complete inventory of institutional and public meteorite collections in Switzerland

Abstract Museums and universities are important for collecting, maintaining, and curating meteorites. To make specimens known and available for research, inventorying and optimal curation are important. However, not all meteorite collections are well curated, especially in smaller institutions. During a 12‐month project supported by the Swiss Confederacy under the “SwissCollNet” framework, we viewed, photographed, and inventoried all public and institutional meteorite collections in Switzerland. In total, the 27 collections contain 7616 specimens, derived from 3469 different meteorites. New, switched, and missing specimens were found in many collections. More than half of the collections contained specimens without inventory numbers and unknown or unofficial specimens, several of which could be assigned to a known meteorite fall or find during this project. The identification of switched or unknown samples was done using handheld X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry and magnetic susceptibility measurements. In total, 201 specimens were attributed a preliminary classification. We demonstrate the importance of smaller collections, which often hold fragments of rare meteorite types. We underline how large‐scale projects like the one presented here allow for unique data, for example, finding specimens missing from one collection in another. By tracking the origin of specimens using historic labels, we show that the history of meteoritics is reflected in the composition of the Swiss collections. During the inventorying process, several prehistoric and modern artifacts made of meteoritic material were found, underlining the potential of analyzing non‐geological specimens in museums.