Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum

The non-profit Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum features more than 30 exhibits of mollusks from around the world. Exhibits are devoted to shells in art and history, shell habitat, rare specimens, fossil shells, common Southwest Florida shells, and more. The learning lab features a hands-on play area for children, displays, games, and a tank with indigenous mollusks. A half-hour video, "Mollusks in Action," is shown on the hour, and a children's video is shown continuously. The museum store offers a wide selection of shell books.

The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, a specialized natural history museum, is a collecting museum. Its collection of shells and preserved specimens represents a large fraction of the global biodiversity of mollusks. The Museum houses a collection of worldwide and local mollusks that encompasses about 150,000 lots. The collection is expanding, with a growing focus on mollusks from the coast of southwest Florida, its barrier islands, and the Gulf of Mexico.

ADMISSION

Children 4 and under: FREE

Youth 5 to 16: $4.00

Adults: 17 and up: $7.00