VOL.37 NO.1 APRIL 2007 - British Shell Collectors' Club

PALLIDULA Page 12
NATURE’S MIRACLES OF DESIGN
by Brian Hammond
An exhibition of seashells held at Montrose Museum, Angus, September 28 th 2006 to January 8 th 2007
In July 2006 I was asked by a local Natural History Society to give a
short talk on seashells at their October meeting that was held in the local
museum. This I agreed to do little knowing at the time what this
innocuous request was to finally turn into. A few days later I received a
letter confirming the talk booking but also saying that the museum had
enquired if it would be possible to have a small exhibition in conjunction
with the talk. On visiting the museum to discuss this I was informed that
8 cabinets were available to me, therefore it was not to be a small
exhibition but a rather large one.
With only about 8 weeks to go this was a daunting task. I started by
Montrose Museum
working out a rough layout for the exhibition and some sort of costing
predictions. It soon became obvious that if this event were to be successful some sponsorship would be
required. I am therefore indebted to the British Shell Collectors’ Club and to GlaxoSmithKline Plc whose kind
sponsorship made this event possible.
The exhibition opened on Saturday 29 th October 2006 and was originally planned to finish on the 15 th
November, however it was so popular with the public that the museum requested that it be extended to January
8 th 2007.
The 8 cabinets consisted of 4 large upright glass fronted display cases and 4 long, flat topped glass cases. The
flat ones were easy to layout a display in but the upright ones were more of a challenge, particularly as there
were a limited number of glass shelves available. The final display took over 2 weeks to complete, 4½ days of
which was actually filling the cabinets, the rest was in creating labels, photographs, shell stories, posters and
handouts. I am indebted to other conchologists for the loan of some shells and poison darts from Conus . In
particular Barbara Shepherd, Jonathan Welsh and Rev. Peter Youngson.
1. Shell classes, fossils, sinistral/dextral shells 2. Cameos, Paua shell, Nautilus and
and interesting rarities
shell giants
3. Cones 4. British Shells