Of course there are many reasons for museums showing or not their
collections of whatever. Much of what has been put forth today is the kinds
of stories I have heard from friends working in various museums, but no one
here has put forth another rather weighty consideration. I used to know
several professionals and nearly professional volunteers at the Natural
History in NY City. Between 1940-about 1965, so many shells were either
pilfered from the display areas or broken when cases were broken into that
they decided it was too dangerous and expensive- - - -even back
then--- - -- -to put out the "beauty contest collection". Imagine what it
would be worth now to replace a case and what might be in it! And that is
the darker side of economics, folks!
-----Original Message-----
From: Jose Eduardo de Alencar Moreira <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, July 21, 2000 1:59 PM
Subject: RES: Bishop Museum Shell Collection


>Hello to all Conch-Lers,
>
>The answer of Wes is very interesting and gives some light about why the
>shell collection open to the public is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO small. I never
>thought that there was no shell in the Bishop Museum's collection or that
it
>was restricted only to that dozen shells open to the public, but my
question
>was WHY is was hidden from the public.
>
>If the scientific collection "is not open to the public, but you can
arrange
>to see it FOR A SPECIAL REASON" (and I had no special reason to see it),
>this opens another question, at least to me (Andy, here comes the polemic
>point!!): what is the role of a museum, from the public perspective?
>...because the public is the one who is paying museums bills. I think that
>it would be "nice" to visit the Louvre and know that Da Vinci's Monalisa or
>Milo's Venus were locked in humidity controlled steel cabinets well
>protected from the public, isn't it? Lack of money and people is not an
>excuse, since I think that with creativity some very good solutions can be
>found. And I'll raise another question: what is the role of the public,
from
>a museum perspective?
>
>Since my background is system analisys, this remembers me an old saying in
>the computer sciences area: it would be nice for the software development
if
>we didn't have the client!! ;-))
>
>BTW, you can blame me as much as possible 'cause I'll only read the
messages
>next Monday. Have a nice weekend. ;-))
>
>Cheers,
>
>Eduardo Moreira
>Brasilia, Brazil
>
>PS: Andy, did I do the homework correctly? ;-))
>
>
>
>-----Mensagem original-----
>De: Wesley M. Thorsson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Enviada em: Quinta-feira, 20 de Julho de 2000 16:29
>Assunto: Bishop Museum Shell Collection
>
>
>Re Eduardo Moreia's comment about the shell collection at Bishop Museum.
> There are only two very small areas open to the public.  One is on a
>staircase crossover area and the other is in a small room leading to a
>courtyard, well hidden from most.
>
>The scientific collection is on the third floor of the main building,
>and is not open to the public, but you can arrange in advance to see it
>for a special reason.  The museum is staffed with very few people, and
>aren't set up for casual tours of the shells.  However, it houses the
>largest collection of Pacific Landsnails in the world, and Robert Cowie,
>the Dept. Head is expert in that area.  Of course, is is very good on
>Hawaiian Landsnails.  The collection of Pacific marine shells is quite
>extensive and well housed in new steel cabinets.  The type specimen
>collection is quite good.  In general the dry and wet collections have a
>good part of marine molluscs available in the Pacific.
>--
>                     Aloha from Wesley M. Thorsson
>Editor of Internet Hawaiian Shell News, a monthly Internet Publication
>           122 Waialeale St, Honolulu, HI  96825-2020,  U.S.A
>       http://www.hits.net/~hsn                 [log in to unmask]