Preserving the Past, One Shell at a Time
The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science is partnering with the University of Delaware to begin work on rehousing 2.5 million mollusk specimens with upwards of 30,000 different species into new acid-free, archival boxes. The collection holds valuable information in regard to pollution, growth rates, and maturity of various mollusks. University of Delaware ungraduated students are helping to keep the mollusk collection going for future generations to use for research and educational purposes. The interns help to prevent Byne’s disease, a chemical reaction between storage materials like wood and the calcium carbonate present in mollusks. The chemical reaction is responsible for degrading mollusks, affecting their lifespan in our collection. By adding archival-grade materials to the collection, the interns are able to help preserve the mollusks.
Meet Delaware Museum of Nature and Science’s mollusk collection summer interns, Finn Thornton and Laura Shidle.
Finn is a rising senior at the University of Delaware. They are majoring in art conservation with minors in fine arts and museum studies. Finn has grown up doing various types of art forms, so they knew they wanted to become an art conservation major early on in their life. One of their first real-world experiences in art conservation was volunteering at other museums. Due to their interest in museums and conservation, they decided to become a summer intern at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science. Finn loves how interning at the museum utilizes their art conservation major with “a really great blend of hands-on work and science.” Outside of interning, Finn is a member of UD’s Lavendar Programming Club and they work on ceramics. In their free time, Finn enjoys the beach, reading, and spending time with friends.
Laura is a rising junior at the University of Delaware in the Honors college. She is majoring in art conservation with minors in advertising, art history, and German. After seeing the mollusk collection for the first time with the museum’s senior mollusk collections manager, Alex Kittle, she decided to intern at the museum. Touring the collections allowed her to become more interested in learning about the various mollusk species and terminology associated with each species. Additionally, this internship allows her to “handle the objects, especially because it’s a stereotype for internships to have more like you get coffee.” Outside of working at the museum, Laura works on the conservation of paintings at a different internship, and she is a member of UD’s water polo club team. Due to her time underwater, she is pretty close to mollusks! In her free time, Laura loves to paint, draw, garden, and spend time with friends.
