Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium is a museum and aquarium devoted to seashells, conchology, and malacology, including the paleontological and archeological/anthropological aspects of the study of shells. The museum is located in the city of Sanibel, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Southwest Florida.
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell 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 freshwater 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 Alliance of Museums in March 2010.
It was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian and the museum reopened in February 2023.
Exhibits
Permanent exhibits include Living Gallery of Aquariums and Marine Life and the Great Hall of Shells. In addition, there are changing special exhibitions throughout the year.Great Hall of Shells
The Great Hall of Shells is the historic heart of the Museum, with extensive permanent exhibits of shells in an octagonal gallery space with 30-foot ceilings. Following significant damage from Hurricane Ian in 2022, the Museum embarked on a full re-design and re-installation of the shell exhibits and the Great Hall. The Great Hall of Shells partially reopened in May of 2025, featuring specimens from all over the world that are highlights selected from the Museum’s collection of nearly 600,000 shells. Themes of these exhibits include global biodiversity, shapes and colors, and time and evolution; and special focuses on groups including cones, cowries, volutes, murexes, scallops, and carrier shells.The second phase, located in the periphery of the Hall, reopened in October of 2025. This final phase includes exhibits on Southwest Florida Shells, World Record Shells, Florida Land Snails, Florida Fossil Shells, shells in human History and Culture, use of shells by the Calusa people, and Conservation and Environmental Issues as they relate to mollusks. The completion of this phase marks the end of the Museum’s rebuilding following Hurricane Ian in 2022.
History
In 1984, a bequest from local shell collector Charlene McMurphy provided seed funding for the concept of creating an educational museum about shells and mollusks on Sanibel. A consortium of other collectors, community members, and scientists responded, and in 1986 The Shell Museum and Research Foundation, Inc. became a 501 non-profit organization with a goal to establish a new museum. In 1987 the world-renowned malacologist and author Dr. R. Tucker Abbott was brought on as an advisor. He enlisted the help of his celebrity friend – and shell collector – actor Raymond Burr to help generate publicity and funds for the effort, and in 1991 Dr. Abbott was appointed Founding Director of the museum-to-be.In 1989, three local brothers, Francis, Samuel, and John Bailey, generously deeded eight acres of land on Sanibel Captiva Road to the Museum. The gift memorialized their parents, Frank P. Bailey and Annie Mead Matthews, whose names the Museum now bears.
Construction began in 1994, and the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum opened to the public in 1995.
Following the passing of Dr. Abbott, Dr. José H. Leal was hired in 1996 as Executive Director, a role he served in for 17 years. Dr. Leal, a malacologist with an international reputation for his expertise in the classification and identification of mollusks, initiated and developed a robust range of educational programs and introduced an era of major growth in the Museum’s scientific collection of mollusks.
Over the decades the scientific collection has grown to nearly 600,000 specimens. While the collection’s strength is mollusks of Florida, the Gulf, and the Caribbean, it includes examples from all corners of the earth and is an important resource for exhibition, public education, enjoyment, and scientific research.
Thanks to grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Science Foundation, the entire collection is catalogued, digitized, and available online. In 2010 the Museum earned accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, which represents the highest standards in the museum industry for public education, collections care, and museum management.
In 2013, Dorrie Hipschman joined the Museum as Executive Director and oversaw a period of growth in staff, programming, and exhibits at the Museum.
New outreach programs such as Mollusks on the Move, launched in 2017, brought the Museum’s mission and educational offerings to new populations of K-12 students throughout Southwest Florida and today serves over 15,000 children.
In 2019, work began on the most significant transformation of the Museum since the institution’s 1995 opening. A major renovation resulted in a welcoming new Museum entrance, a flexible space for temporary exhibitions and events, and – most consequentially – the Living Gallery of Aquariums and Marine Life. Exhibiting over 300 animals and 60 species of marine life, the new aquarium exhibits opened in 2020 and bring to life mollusks from diverse marine habitats both local and global including octopuses, conchs, clams, cuttles, squids, cones, whelks, sea hares, and many more. In 2021, Sam Ankerson joined as Executive Director with a focus on broadening programs, building audiences, and growing partnerships regionally and nationally to help grow and further the impact of the Museum and its mission. In August 2022, the Museum earned accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, becoming one of only about a dozen institutions to be accredited by both AAM and AZA.