Following nearly three years of rebuilding from damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium has opened extensive new, educational, and permanent exhibits of shells from around the world.
The Great Hall of Shells, as the gallery is known, underwent a complete re-curation, redesign, and reinstallation. The result is over 3,500 square feet of new exhibits that showcase thousands of shells, the habitats in which mollusks live, conservation challenges and successes they experience, and ways in which shells have played a role in human history and culture over centuries.
About three times as many shells are on view in the new Great Hall of Shells as prior to Hurricane Ian. Dozens of wide-ranging exhibits include spotlights on Southwest Florida shells, World Record Shells (the largest known shell specimens), micromollusks (the smallest), Cowries, Cones, Murexes, Cuban Land Snails, Volutes, Scallops, Carrier Shells, fossil shells, and many others.
Expanded exhibits of shells in culture illuminate the enduring influence of shells in art, currency, collecting, architecture, music, tools, spirituality, fashion, medicine, and other areas of human endeavor and creativity. New exhibits touch on regional and global environmental dynamics that impact mollusks and their shells such as habitat loss, climate change, and water quality; and include conservation success stories such as oyster habitat and Queen Conch restoration.
The design of the new exhibits, by Matter Practice of New York City, is contemporary, elegant, and engineered to display the shells as if they were floating and lit as if they were gems. The exhibits are curated by Dr. José H. Leal, Museum Science Director and Curator.
“The design of the new Great Hall of Shells is beautiful—both harmonious and consistent—while making the most of the existing space,” said Dr. Leal. “I am proud to have been involved in the project from the very beginning. The gratification I feel in seeing the final result is enriched by the perspective gained from my many years of involvement with the Museum and its exhibits.”
“Coming out of Hurricane Ian, we wanted to rebuild and create the most beautiful and compelling exhibits of shells possible,” said Museum Executive Director Sam Ankerson. “This space is intended
to awe, to educate, and to inspire, and we welcome all to be introduced, or re-introduced, to the timeless beauty and utility of these wonders of nature.”
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium is open daily, 10am-5pm. In addition to the Great Hall of Shells, the Museum includes the Living Gallery of Aquariums which exhibits hundreds of marine animals including octopuses, conchs, seahorses, fish, corals, and more.
Plan your visit at ShellMuseum.org.
About the Museum: The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium is a natural history museum and aquarium, and the only museum in the United States devoted primarily to shells and mollusks. Its mission is to use exceptional collections, aquariums, programs, experiences, and science to be the nation’s leading museum in the conservation, preservation, interpretation, and celebration of shells, the mollusks that create them, and their ecosystems. For more information, please visit ShellMuseum.org or call (239) 395-2233.
