Bailey Matthews Shell Museum

The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum is located on Sanibel Island just off the western coast of Florida. The museum is home to one of the largest collections of global biodiversity of mollusks. Students from all over the United States as well as from around the world come to the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum to study and examine specimens in their fields of expertise.  The data base can also be accessed and searched online.

On a vacation trip to Sanibel and Captiva Island, a visit to The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum should not be overlooked. Sanibel Island has long been a shell collector’s dream vacation destination.

The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum almost didn’t come into existence at all. There were many years of just dreaming about creating a shell museum by shell collecting enthusiasts before there was even a plan formed. The dream began to take substantive form in 1984 when Charlene McMurphy, a local shell collector bequeathed a sum of $10,000 to fund a study of the feasibility of such a museum.

Charlene and her husband, Rolland, who was a gifted shell craftsman in his own right, formed a committee made up of members of the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club members to explore the formation of a museum. The committee was headed by Betts Johnson and eventually evolved into what became known as The Shell Museum and Research Foundation by 1986. By early 1988, the Museum began its first membership drive and in July of 1988, the City of Sanibel declared the Museum an educational institution which opened up many new possibilities.

Francis, Samuel, and John Bailey (brothers) promised to donate eight acres of land which was situated in the wetlands south of Sanibel-Captiva Road. Some time passed but eventually the brothers did in fact donate the land and the museum was subsequently named in honor of their parents, Frank P. Bailey and Annie Mead Matthews. The museum was opened to the public in 1995 and immediately became a vacation destination of shell collecting enthusiasts from around the world. There are virtual tours available on the website (www.shellmuseum.org) and the website is updated almost daily.

Group tours of The Bailey Matthews Shell Museum are offered. Tours are for groups of all ages, from school age children to elders. These tours are unique and offer slide presentations about mollusks and their lifestyles. There is a display that tour participants can actually touch.

 There are also exhibits visited in ‘The Great Hall of Shells’ that include live mollusks. It is an interesting as well as entertaining tour. In “The Great hall of Shells’ there are twenty-six various exhibits.

Shell collecting is one of the most popular of all hobbies in America and around the world. Many individuals have very extensive personal collection of shells but none of those collections even approach the awesome array of the shells at The Bailey Matthews Shell Museum.

A tour of The Bailey Matthews Shell Museum is certainly well worth the time and is a treat that shouldn’t be overlooked when visiting the Sanibel Island and Captiva Islands!