Dear Ken,
 
thank you best for the vast informations. Very interesting. I can send you
a lot of Austrian and European species from 1 to 10 specimens / species.
in which families are you mostly interested ?.
As I have a lot of work for the museums and on an old school-collection
of the time before 1900 I am not able to make a list with my shells,
but I can send you nice species through many families. You don't need
to make list for me too, as I am interested in all you can save for  me.
I don't have special wishes but I would be pleased to get some nice
out-European species of land-shells, also some rarer ones.
Hope to hear again from you
with our best regards
yours Helmut
 
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> Dear Helmut,
>
> Thanks for your greetings.  In response to your queries, I currently
> reside in Wichita, Kansas, USA, but grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota where
> my interests in the hobby began with a visit to The Science Museum of
> Minnesota (SMM) as a 10yr old.  My prime objective was to see a mummy
> displayed there, but I became fascinated with all the natural history
> exhibits as well.  There was also an interactive program called  The
> Trading Post, where the public could bring their own natural history
> objects and actually trade them for those which others had traded in.  A
> form of in-house currency, called Trading Post Points, were ascribed to
> each object, and given to the person trading to spend as desired.  The
> real "hook" of the program was the more data supplied with the objects
 
> being traded in, the more "points" were awarded.  Also, a "discount"
> could be given for information about the item being traded for.   I
> began to participate in this program, hunting up all the  collectible
> rocks, minerals, fossils, bones, etc., that I could find.  By
> researching all these items, a large number of points were accumulated,
> and I had fun spending them on such diverse things as moose antlers, an
> entire cocoanut (I'd never seen one before), a cut and polished
> Brazilian agate, and of course seashells!  It didn't take long for my
> interests to focus upon the shells.  I would "buy", with points, an
> assortment of unidentified shells, take them home, research them, write
> labels, and present them glued to poster board as a collection to trade
> in.  It payed off big!  For the two hundred point investment, I might've
> earned 4-500 points.  So it went for several years (I was a serious
> trader!).  The time came when I had questions the Trading Post Manager
> couldn't answer, and I was referred to one of the museum curators.  I
> was given the privilege of a visit to the mollusk collection.  Wow!  It
> was impressive, small by large museum standards, but holding over
> 100,000 specimens.  To make what could be a longer story somewhat
> shorter, I became a museum volunteer and worked on the collection off
> and on until 1984.  It was my great fortune to have as a mentor, Kevin
> W. Marx, a herpetologist primarily, but with an interest in mollusca.
> The shell collection was in his charge, and he gave me a thorough
> grounding in nomenclature, terminology, systematics, research methods,
> etc.  I really enjoy museum work, and have taken advantage of every
> opportunity which came my way.  I've spent several seasons with the
> paleo dept. on digs in North Dakota and Wyoming (crocodiles and
> dinosaurs), worked as a preparator in the biology dept., mainly
> preparing study skins, and skeletal prep., spent time in the exhibits
> dept. designing and constructing exhibits, and in the education dept.
> where (guess what!), I became Trading Post Manager.  That position was
> eliminated after several years and a change in the museum's
> administration, and a few years later I moved to Wichita, at the behest
> of a former colleague who wanted to start a Trading Post for use by the
> school system here.  I launched and maintained that program for 10
> years, until due to a shift in priorities the entire Museum Programs
> (modeled after that of the Smithsonian), was terminated. So now I'm
> searching for something in the museum field, and with new science
> centers opening up in Wichita, and my home town of St. Paul, something
> may open up.
>
> Please excuse my loquacity, but I wanted to give you my background and
> further introduce myself.  Future postings will not take up so much of
> your time.
>
> Yes, I would be interested in trading for some of your European
> landshells.  I have extras of most all the self-collected species in my
> collection.  I will email you a list in the coming days.
>
> About the Papustyla pulcherrima, I have several specimens, but am
> reluctant to send them to anyone via mail.  Since they are considered
> endangered species, I don't believe if it is legal to do so.   Anyone
> reading this is asked to respond to this point.
>
> Well, gotta go.
> Ken
>