Marking the culmination of two years of cooperation among library staff and faculty from across the , shell allure has officially opened in the first-floor lobby of . The permanent exhibition highlights the biological diversity of hundreds of Hawaiian marine shells and their history of use as tools and decorations. The collection on display comprises more than 150 species of marine mollusk shells collected from the Kame?ole Beach Park II area on Maui.
Amateur shell collector Jim Fenske donated this extensive mollusk shell collection to the university in 2013. Fenske requested that the collection be displayed in a public library and used by students and researchers for biological reference. In preparation for the collection¡¯s transfer and display, Fenske approached Michael B. Thomas, a researcher in the UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ who was previously involved in creating a digital exhibition of the Marine Shell Collection for the ¡¯s archaeology lab. Thomas curated Fenske¡¯s specimen collection and developed the Sinclair Library exhibit with the help of students from the UH ²Ñ¨¡²Ô´Ç²¹ . Thomas also plans to digitize Fenske¡¯s collection in the future, making it more widely available for research and instruction via Flickr.
Also instrumental in preparing the exhibit for Sinclair Library was Tom Klobe, emeritus professor of art and art history, former director of the , and nationally recognized exhibition designer. Klobe, assisted by museum studies intern Jason Foberg, developed the exhibit design and created the labeling and written narrative for shell allure.
¡°I became interested in biology in the 1970s when I occasionally helped a good friend in Florida with his shell collection,¡± said Fenske on how his interest in shell collecting began. ¡°I found collecting interesting and educational. When I got to Hawai?i and became a certified scuba diver, I met two Native Hawaiians with whom I frequently dove. They introduced me to some of the shells and the subject fascinated me. I bought a book on Hawaiian shells and decided it would be great to collect samples of all the shells in the book. I didn¡¯t quite get all of them but certainly got a majority, to which this exhibit testifies. After having them for more than 40 years I decided a better use would be to offer them to UH.
¡ª