Rachel,

I would recommend two books that should help you dig into the history of
shell collecting.  The first is Abbott's "Kingdom of the Seashell."
This book has lots of interesting stuff beyond shell descriptions.  The
second is "Shells, An Illustrated Guide to a Timeless and Fascinating
World," by Mary Saul.  This book has a wealth of information of the type
you want.  There are also one maybe two books by Peter Dance on this
topic (one is entitled something like "The History of Shell
Collecting"), unfortunately I do not own and have never been able to
look at these volumes.  So maybe someone else can steer you a bit in
this case.

Good luck,

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA

P.S.  All of these are candidates for second-hand/used book stores --
good hunting.