The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum is a museum of seashells and conchology located in the city of Sanibel, Florida on Sanibel Island on the Gulf coast of Southwest Florida. The museum opened to the public in 1995, and operates as an information and reference center for national and international scientists, students, and shell enthusiasts, particularly those who are interested in the marine, terrestrial, and land mollusks of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. The Museum, which is a facility of the Shell Museum and Educational Foundation, Inc., received its first accreditation from the American Association of Museums in March, 2010.
Sanibel Island is one of the better seashell collecting spots in the world (comparable to Jeffreys Bay in Africa and the Sulu Archipelago in the Pacific). Many of the museum's exhibits were collected on the island's own beaches, and it also owns a considerable collection of Fijian cowries and cones donated by actor Raymond Burr, who owned a shell-strewn island in the Fijis.
Read more about Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum: Facilities and Programs, History
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