Scott,

I was going to stay out of this and leave it to the professionals, but what
the heck.  One of the nicest shell displays I have seen was at the Natural
History Museum in Houston, TX.  They had the specimens displayed in cabinets
that were basically two vertical panes of glass with the shells "suspended"
in between.  Each shell was hung (in the case of gastropods) or supported
(for the bivalves) by small glass (or maybe plastic) tubes of maybe 1/8 to
1/4 of an inch in diameter.  These appeared to be solid and for the
gastropods they were bent and curved so that they fit into the aperture.
The other end was glued to the display glass.  In this manner you end up
with the various shells on display "floating" within the case and visitors
can see both the dorsal and the ventral aspect of each shell by walking
around and viewing the shells from one side of the case or the other.  The
supporting glass tubes are non-obtrusive and do not detract from viewing the
ventral side of the shell.  In fact, they can hardly be seen until one
really "looks" at the display.  There were also typical displays as seen in
most museums and some small aquaria with live specimens, but it was the
standing glass cabinets that really stood out.

Another notable display can be seen at the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum in
Sanibel, FL.  The displays there are more typically done in wall cases and
dioramas, but each is centered around a theme and the result is more of an
educational approach rather than a display of nice-looking shells (although
they do have a few such displays).  Similarly, the shell museum at Lake
Jackson, TX, has the standard wall case setup, but they have also included
numerous cases with display drawers of specimens.  Drawers such as these are
normally kept out of the public viewing areas in museums, so this approach
is also unusual (and appreciated by visiting shell collectors).

Tom E. in New Mexico where the local museum keeps the shells locked up in
the back.

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