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