Visit a Virtual Museum of Canada exhibit on the history of Valentine's Day, which features
Sailors' Valentines from The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum.
Click photos for a larger view
Two large, high-resolution shell photographs by renowned photographer Dr. Henry Domke flank the entrance to the Great Hall of Shells. The images, representing moon scallops (reddish orange) and the Manus Island tree snail (green), were taken by Dr. Domke at the Museum's collections depsrtment.
A display of the most common species of seashells likely to be found on the beaches and in the backwaters of the islands.
Welcome to the shores of Sanibel and Captiva islands. The shells you find washed ashore represent a very small fraction of the offshore populations hidden under the sand or among the corals, sponges, and sea fan meadows. On display are a few dozen of the most common kinds of seashells you are likely to find on the beach and the most common types of habitats found associated with barrier islands.
Local shells live Beneath The Seas in San Carlos Bay and offshore; on Wharves and Seawalls; on Beaches; in Mangrove Estuaries; and on Dry Land.
When conchology became a serious science and a popular hobby, early settlers and visiting scientists sampled and classified the rich molluscan fauna of Sanibel and Captiva.
Turn the sides of the wheel toward you to learn how to classify and identify your Southwest Florida Shells.
A sampling of the 25,000 kinds of endangered air-breathing snails that inhabit woods, trees, and gardens.
Tropical forests are a haven for landsnails, especially those living on trees. Once abundant in the hardwood trees in hammocks throughout southern Florida, where they underwent isolation in diverse microhabitats followed by genetic divergence, the brightly colored Liguus snails have almost disappeared due to habitat destruction and contraction of the wetland areas caused by uncontrolled development. A comprehensive collection of the numerous local forms and relatives from Cuba and Haiti is on display.
Walk through the distant past, examining some of the more impressive fossil shells from Southwest Florida.
Most of the land, if not all, in the southern half of Florida was once seafloor. Florida fossil shells hold secrets about the different layers of seafloor deposited in the last 15-20 million years as a result of several events of rise and fall of global sea level. On display are fossil species paired with their hypothesized closest living relatives.
Rare treasures found in fossil pits from Maryland to Florida. Now extinct, Ecphora flourished some 30 million to 3 million years ago.
Life-size models of a father explaining shell tools to his son and a display of shell hammers, anvils, and fishing tools show how the Calusa of Southwest Florida made the most of their abundant marine resources.
Some shells carry diseases fatal to humans but many have beneficial medicinal qualities, including anticancer and antiviral properties.
Get acquainted with the money cowrie (Cypraea moneta), the most widely circulated currency in history.
Fascinating carrier-shells attach other shells, corals, and small objects to their own shells.
The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum has available a collection of many species of shells, with teaching instructions, for purchase by Schools or Children's Museums. The cost is $20.00 ($25.00 U.S. funds to Canada or Mexico, $30.00 U.S. funds to other foreign countries) to cover materials and shipping. Purchase orders must be accompanied by a check.
Please make checks payable to The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum. Schools or Children's Museums interested in obtaining a school shell collection kit and optional shell-related videos must make a written request on their institutional letterhead. (Please include a street address, not a P. O. Box, for UPS shipping.)
The collections are intended to be part of the curriculum for classroom instruction (in order for the shell kit to reach as many children as possible). The collection is suitable for grades 4 through 8, and preferably should be put under the guidance of a science or biology teacher. When displayed, the collection takes up a space of approximately 3 x 4 feet. For grades four and up, the optional DVDs The Secret Lives of Seashells and Trails and Tales of Living Seashells, additionally sold for $19.95 each, provide information about the life of mollusks in greater detail.
The carton contains:
- Teacher's Guide
- Student's Identification Guide
- Seashells of the World,
- Species of marine mollusks
- One set of labels
- Optional DVD (The Secret Lives of Seashells) (additional $19.95)
- Optional DVD (Trails and Tales of Living Seashells) (additional $19.95)
Requests should be mailed to The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, P. O. Box 1580, Sanibel, FL 33957. The science teacher should be identified by name. (No exceptions, sorry.) Donations to further this program are always welcome and are tax-deductible.
The School Shell Collection Kit is assembled, packed, and mailed by volunteers. There is a limited supply, so there may be delays in shipping.
At this time, School Shell Collection Kits have been received by more than 2,000 schools and museums in the United States, American Samoa, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland.
A dazzling display of this colorful shell, including its use in art, religion, heraldry, and at the table.
No other group of mollusks is better represented in so many and diverse fields of human endeavor than scallops. For thousands of years humans have used these bivalves as food, but the balance and symmetry of their shells also enticed humans from many cultures to use them as ornaments adorning objects ranging from silverware to furniture, and as symbols in heraldry and religion. This exhibit also provides rich information about their biology, biodiversity, and lists commercially used species from all over the world.
Rare or highly prized specimens of the cone family.
A magnificent shell art form developed in the early 19th century by women of Barbados and other Caribbean areas for sailors to take home to their loved ones.
Sailors' valentines are a shell art form developed in the early nineteenth century. Octagonal boxes served as frames for symmetrical and well-balanced compositions that artists created, in pointillist-like fashion, using small shells of different colors and shapes.
Contrary to myth, sailors' valentines were not made by sailors in order to pass time at sea. They were usually assembled by female residents of Barbados and other Caribbean ports of call for New England whalers to purchase and bring back to their loved ones waiting at home. The craftswomen would often include romantic phrases such as "Forget-me-not" and "Remember me". Recently this art form has undergone a revival amongst shell crafters.
Cameos - A highly specialized art requiring the talents of a skilled engraver to turn part of a seashell into a delicate relief image.
Shell Inlay - Since earliest times, people have admired and used mother-of-pearl, the iridescent surface of certain seashells.
Buttons & Bows - In the early 20th century, manufacturers used freshwater pearly mussel shells to make buttons.
Check out the interactive displays, shell games, live shell tank, and other goodies and attractions at the Children's Learning Lab. You can't miss it! Adult participation is encouraged.
A video and specimens highlight the smallest shells found in the sea, sometimes as little as grains of sand. See how some shells change radically during growth from baby to adult.
An eye-opener to the microscopic world of tiny mollusks (with shells as small as 0.5 mm), this exhibit introduces the concept that marine micromollusks, although seldom noticed due to their small size, are very abundant and diverse in many areas of the world, especially in tropical and subtropical regions . A stunning display of digital images (associated in the exhibit with the actual subjects, sand grain-sized shells) and a dazzling video of live micromollusks are displayed.
Rare or highly prized specimens of the volute family.
The newest Shell Museum exhibit, installed in April 2010. "MMM...Mollusks!" brings fun facts about shellfish and interprets the uses of mollusks as food throughout the planet. Find how your favorite edible mollusks are prepared in five continents and send recipes back home or to a friend using the exhibit's touchscreen and dedicated email. Sponsored by James Hartman and Molly Gerlich, Harry G. Lee, Jack Lightbourn, Floirda Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, and Timbers Restaurant and Fish Market.
Temporary exhibit of rare, beautiful, or unusual specimens from the Museum research and collection department
The current Shell of the Moment, is a large specimen of the Rumphius slit snail, Entemnotrochus rumphii. The Rumphius slit snail may reach 11 inches in diameter, and lives in deep waters around Japan, the East and South China seas, Taiwan, and the Philippine Islands. The scientific name of the species honors Georgius Everhardus Rumphius, a 17th Century German naturalist who did much to popularize shell collecting in his time.
The family Pleurotomariidae (slit snails) includes about 30 living species. Except for their larger size, shells of living slit snails look very much like the fossil shells of their relatives from as early as 250 million years ago. For this reason, slit snails are regarded as “living fossils.”
All slit snail shells display the characteristic slit that helps direct the flow of waste water away from the snail’s head. This magnificent specimen represents the largest slit snail in the Pleurotomariidae. It was donated by longtime Museum supporters Dorothy and Lowell DeVasure, of Sanibel Island.
The current Shell of the Moment, is a large specimen of the Rumphius slit snail, Entemnotrochus rumphii. The Rumphius slit snail may reach 11 inches in diameter, and lives in deep waters around Japan, the East and South China seas, Taiwan, and the Philippine Islands. The scientific name of the species honors Georgius Everhardus Rumphius, a 17th Century German naturalist who did much to popularize shell collecting in his time.
The family Pleurotomariidae (slit snails) includes about 30 living species. Except for their larger size, shells of living slit snails look very much like the fossil shells of their relatives from as early as 250 million years ago. For this reason, slit snails are regarded as “living fossils.”
All slit snail shells display the characteristic slit that helps direct the flow of waste water away from the snail’s head. This magnificent specimen represents the largest slit snail in the Pleurotomariidae. It was donated by longtime Museum supporters Dorothy and Lowell DeVasure, of Sanibel Island.
See how shell shapes, patterns, and proportions have influenced architectural design throughout history.
From times immemorial, shell forms have inspired crafters, builders, and architects from many cultures.
Diverse shells of the Pacific Northwest, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
Life-size models of a giant squid, nautilus, and octopus, in addition to photographs and text, explain the three main surviving branches of Cephalopods.
Cephalopods (octopuses, squids, nautiluses) are mollusks that evolved into lifestyles that resemble more those of fishes and other vertebrates. While most mollusks rely on a hard shell for protection, cephalopods, with exception of nautiluses, lack external shells. Instead, cephalopods depend upon their powerful muscles, highly developed nervous system, and efficient jet propulsion swimming for extremely quick escape responses. The exhibit covers many aspects of cephalopod biology and related folklore, and includes a 13-foot model of a giant squid (Architeuthis dux).
Centerpiece of the Great Hall of Shells is a six-foot diameter globe surrounded by shell exhibits from various geographic provinces.
The exhibit displays, among other record-size shells, the largest known representatives on record of four very large species. On display are the size records for the Goliath conch (Eustrombus goliath, 380.0 mm [15×11 approximately]), the lightning whelk (Busycon sinistrum, 402 mm [16×8” approximately]), the Atlantic trumpet triton (Charonia variegata, 387.5 mm [16×7 approximately]), and the horse conch (Triplofusus giganteus, 606 mm [24x10” approximately]). The Goliath conch is the largest species in the family Strombidae, the true conchs. Exhibit sponsored by the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club, opened in February 2011.
A new, multidisciplinary exhibit entirely devoted to cowries explores (1) their esthetical value and role in “collectability”, (2) their cultural importance and use by humans, and (3) some of their biological attributes.
Most likely because of their beauty and symmetry, cowries have been played many roles in the daily lives peoples from many cultures throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Money cowries have been one of the most pervasive forms of currency in human history, both in time and geographically. Cowries have been used as decorative pieces in furniture, statues and idols, ceremonial ornaments, and everyday clothing in cultures spanning from West Africa to Easter Island, including most, if not, of the Southwest Pacific Islands.
Living cowries are also very interesting and attractive, with their mantle projections (known as papillae) that carry sensory organs to help these mostly night-dwelling animals as detect predators and find their way along the sea bottom. (An interactive display with videos of six living cowries is included in the Biology section.)
Cowries comprise a well-defined branch of the Tree of Life, the family Cypraeidae. For more than 200 years, all 200+ species in the family Cypraeidae were considered to belong to the single genus Cypraea. (A few attempts at separating the species into distinctive genera were poorly received as they lacked proper biological justification.) However, through the molecular work of Dr. Chris Meyer, who worked at the Florida Museum of Natural History in the early 2000s (now a research zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History), most cowry species could finally be grouped into suitable, different genera.
The exhibit, which opened in September 2011, was fully sponsored by Jean and Richard Rompala, of Sanibel Island. They dedicate the “Cowries” exhibit to all Shell Museum volunteers, past, present, and future.