A Delight for the Eye and the Mind
Books on Mollusks and Their Shells
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is one of the oldest and largest centers in the world for Malacology, the scientific study of Mollusks. Mollusks include marine, fresh-water and land snails, limpets, slugs (with shells reduced or lost), bivalves (such as oysters, clams and scallops), chitons, tusk “shells”, and, perhaps unexpectedly to non-biologists, cephalopods (fossil ammonites, nautiluses, cuttlefish, squids and octopodes).
There are approximately 100,000 living species of mollusks, and the Academy has an enormous collection of those living today and also extinct, fossil shells, used for research by in-house curators and by visiting experts and shell collectors (the distinction merges) from around the world. The Academy aids the identification of mollusks with its many type specimens (on which many of the scientific names are based), being a huge bureau of standards.
The Ewell Sale Stewart Library of the Academy backs up all this work, having virtually all of the publications on systematic malacology (and other organisms), no matter what its antiquity or language. Benefactors have acquired many book treasures for the Academy over many years. In the 19th century many of the old books were still available and cost relatively little. Indeed, “the older the book, the more certain the Academy Library is to have it”—an unusual attribute.
Drawing on a few of the many treasures and more recent publications in the Ewell Sale Stewart Library of the Academy, this online exhibit presents the many ways mollusks and their shells have been illustrated: from fanciful 15th century woodcuts to scientifically accurate illustrations of the 18th and 19th centuries.
—Dr. Robert Robertson, Guest Curator
This online exhibit features the following malacological treasures: