Rehousing an Essential Land Snail Collection Resource

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This project will allow Bishop Museum in Honolulu to conserve and rehouse its mollusk collection in new metal storage cabinets. This collection (6 million specimens in 240,000 lots, including 900 holotypes and 24,000 other types) is dominated by Pacific land snails, and ranks as the ninth largest mollusk collection in the U.S. Two-thirds of the land snail specimens have associated alcohol-preserved soft parts in the collection. The project follows from a 1987 conservator's report that recommended 1) replacing all land snail specimen trays with acid- free unit trays and/or polystyrene boxes, 2) replacing all wooden cabinets and drawers with metal fixtures, and 3) removing all cardboard boxes in and around the storage area. Temperature and humidity fluctuations have been controlled by the Bishop by installing several window air conditioning units. Rehousing of this collection will not only conserve this international research resource, but will make it much more accessible for education and research in the biology of mollusks.