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This content will become publicly available on October 31, 2026

Title: Historical review of the molluscan collection at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium, Sanibel, Florida
This article presents a brief history of the collection at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium from its inception to the present, with goals for the future. The molluscan collection is the youngest of its kind in the United States. It is worldwide in scope, with emphases on Southwest Florida, Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean, representing the amalgamation of a considerable number of private and institutional collections. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Founding Director R. Tucker Abbott orchestrated the initial efforts to amass specimens to create a reference collection. Digitization of the collection started in late 1996, about a year after the opening of the Shell Museum. The authors discuss the collection composition, the role that accreditation with the American Alliance of Museums played in the growth of the collection, support of federal grants, sharing of collection metadata in global data aggregators, recent participation in the federally funded “Mollusks of the Eastern Seaboard”, and other outcomes of the collection coming of age.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2001528
PAR ID:
10651043
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Editor(s):
Leal, JH; Bieler, R
Publisher / Repository:
The Nautilus
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Nautilus
Volume:
139
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0028-1344
Page Range / eLocation ID:
202-217
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Mollusca, Sanibel, Shell Museum, malacology, cataloging, database, data aggregators, museum accreditation, georeferencing, biodiversity
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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