Labeling the specimens as "Leg. Univ. Alabama" does indeed add confusion.
 
The real situation is complex enough, but since Doug Shelton brought it up,
I will attempt a summary of events. The Geological Survey of Alabama was
founded in 1848 as an agency of the State of Alabama. Although it has
always been located on the campus of the University of Alabama, it has been
legally separate for 150 years. In the 1880's, E. A. Smith put the
collections of the Survey on display as a geologic museum. The museum
prospered and branched out into all fields of natural history as more staff
members were acquired, and in 1926 was incorporated as the Alabama Museum
of Natural History. At this point, it had the largest museum building in
the United States south of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, and held a
world-class shell collection, including terrestrial and freshwater species
as well as marine mollusks, largely through the donations of amateur
collectors E. R. Schowalter and T. H. Aldrich, as well as the incredible
freshwater collections made by Curator Herbert H. Smith. The Depression was
not good news for the budget, and World War II was worse: Most of the
curators volunteered to join the Armed Services, and they were never
replaced. By 1960, the Survey, on a low budget and a reduced staff, was
running Mound State Monument (now Moundville Archaeological Park, with
ANOTHER museum) in addition to the Alabama Museum of Natural History, and
people began to wonder what business a state geological survey had in
running a couple of museums in addition to the usual duties. With this in
mind, the Legislature pruned these functions from the Survey in 1961, and
the museums became the property of the University of Alabama. The geologic
collections, including the better part of the fossils, remained in the care
of the Geological Survey of Alabama.
 
Within a few years, the University divested itself of the shell collection,
and doubled Florida's collection of shells overnight. The move, I am told,
was not popular here, but it was done too quickly for protests to be
effective, and, after all, there had not been a malacologist on the staff
here for years. And one must admit that Florida has maintained the Alabama
collection in state-of-the-art conditions (quibbles about the use of "Leg."
notwithstanding). Of course, now that there are four malacologists working
on campus within a few hundred yards of me, one can well wonder whether the
right decision was made several years ago. But what's done is done; there's
no use in crying over spilled milk.
 
I like to think that this little story makes a good cautionary parable for
others. But, as I hear (often through Conch-L) that one time-honored museum
after another undergoes its time of troubles, I tend to take a broader
view. After all, the shells are not being thrown away. It seems that a few
museums (Delaware, Florida, Bailey) are going to be wonderful places to
work on mollusks in the next century. But they are going to be lonely.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama