The Houston Museum of Natural Science has one of the best shell
exhibits of worldwide and Texas shells that I have seen. Other museums
with good shell displays include the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum that
you already mentioned, and the Brazosport Museum of Natural Science,
in Clute, Texas, also has a nice display and collection of worldwide,
and especially Texas shells. It has been said that it has the largest
number of shells on display, about 14,000+ shells, according to the
site:
http://bcfas.org/museum2014/mildred-tate-hall-of-malacology/

Kevin Cummings and colleagues have compiled a list of Systematic
Research Collections (of mollusks) from around the world. It lists
many collections, a short description of each collection, curator and
collections manager contact information, etc. It can be found here:
http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/collections/mollusk/links/list

A quick collection about the (Bernice Pauahi) Bishop Museum: it is in
Honolulu, Hawaii, not Hilo. Maybe Richard was thinking of the Lyman
House, in Hilo, which does have a nice display of seashells. Bishop
Museum also has a nice exhibit of shells, and one of the largest
collections of mollusks in the world (although it is not normally
accessible to the public).

Best,
Fabio M.

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Vicky Wall <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Museum of Coastal Carolina, in Ocean Isle Beach, NC has a collection of
> NC mollusks.
>
> ________________________________
> From: "Ellen Bulger" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 2:43:46 PM
> Subject: [CONCH-L] Shell exhibits and museums and such
>
>
> Does anyone have a comprehensive list of museums and parks with shell
> exhibits?
>
> I know of Bailey-Matthews on Sanibel, for sure. And there is the Brevard
> Museum of Natural History with its excellent Johnson Cordy Hall of Mollusks.
>
> But what about other parts of the country? I've been teaching after school
> science classes and I don't even know where to send my students. Yale's
> Peabody here in New Haven used to have an excellent shell exhibit, back
> about FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO! So the kids have not seen very many shells.
>
> When they have been exposed to nature, it's more likely to have been on the
> Discovery Channel than IRL.
>
> In New Haven, at least, we have beaches. Okay, maybe not Florida beaches.
> The water is cold and murky (I was going to say polluted, but no more than
> Florida, really.) and dark. But there are beaches and tides and life and
> wrack lines. Still, the kids don't even think to poke through them. And I
> reckon they need a jumpstart and an exhibit can do that. I hand out take
> home materials and it would be great to have a list of shell-exhibit
> destinations for the parents to bear in mind for summer vacation. I would
> also like to include it on the Astronaut Shell Club Blog that we are putting
> together astronauttrailshellclub.blogspot.co m
>
> In the meantime, we need to make do with what we got. If I was in Florida, I
> could take them to a warm beach with white sand. I could take them to
> Sanibel or to the Brevard Museum (and tomorrow, at Brevard, I wouldn't even
> have to pay because it's the open house).
>
> Anyway, I'm working on making new converts to our hobby. My kids can tell a
> bivalve from a gastropod and my personal supply of spare shells has been
> doled out. I dump out a BIG piles of shells and tell the kiddies, if you can
> ID* it, you can take it home. Great motivator!
>
> Man oh man, they love those sunrise tellins!
>
> * and by ID, I mean even come up with a reasonable wild guess...
>
>



--
-------------------------------------------------
Fabio Moretzsohn, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5869, Corpus Christi, TX 78412-5869
Phone: (361) 825-3230; Fax: (361) 825-2050
mollusca [at] gmail.com
Managing Editor, American Malacological Bulletin
Please consider the environment before printing this email.  Think Green!

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