Museums
Many museums worldwide contain very large and scientifically-important mollusc collections. However in most cases these are research collections, behind the scenes of the museum, and thus not readily accessible to the general public in the same way that exhibits are.
The largest assemblage of mollusc shells is housed at the Smithsonian Institution which has millions of lots representing perhaps 50,000 species, versus about 35,000 species for the largest private collections.
Read more about this topic: Conchology
Famous quotes containing the word museums:
“In museums and palaces we are alternate radicals and conservatives.”
—Henry James (1843–1816)
“Museums are just a lot of lies, and the people who make art their business are mostly imposters.... We have infected the pictures in museums with all our stupidities, all our mistakes, all our poverty of spirit. We have turned them into petty and ridiculous things.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)