Mollusc collections making connections at the East London Museum: a narrative

Abstract

The Malacology collection of the East London Museum is among the major museum collections of molluscs in South Africa. The dry and wet collections contain over 21 000 accessioned records, and probably over 100 000 specimens. Marjory Courtenay-Latimer's family collections, including their shells, formed the core of the newly established East London Museum in the early 1930s. The first Conchologist, Dennis Harper Kennelly, was appointed part-time in 1962. Together with Marjory Courtenay-Latimer, he established the Border Shell Club, the local branch of the Conchological Society of southern Africa. Over the years the museum shell curators played an active role in the club and many members contributed greatly to the museum collections by offering their expertise and voluntary assistance, and donating specimens. In 2000, focus shifted from marine shells to land snails and annual collaborative collecting trips involving the East London Museum, the Border Shell Club and the KwaZulu-Natal Museum to document the snails of Transkei and other parts of the Eastern Cape took place for many years. New species were named after several people to acknowledge their contribution to Malacology. Landowners, managers of reserves and field rangers were educated about this aspect of the fauna while helping to collect. A project revising a genus of snail has provided far-reaching opportunities for connections to be made including a visit to the Natural History Museum in London, to examine type specimens, and the presentation of a paper at the World Congress of Malacology in the Azores, where contact was made with Malacologists working on this family elsewhere in Africa.