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| Calusa: The Original Shell People | ||
| The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum’s newest exhibit, Calusa: The Original Shell People, opened April 14, 2003. The much-anticipated exhibit makes the connection between an important part of the history of Southwest Florida, that of the Calusa culture, with the main theme of the Shell Museum, mollusks and their shells. Calusa were masters at taking advantage of the area's natural resources, and among those resources were shells. The relatively sophisticated Calusa culture has been compared to those of the Aztecs and Mayans; shells played an important role in the Calusa culture. The exhibit was sponsored by Mrs. Anina Hills Glaize. She has extensive knowledge about the Calusa, having volunteered in field research on the Calusa led by the Florida Museum of Natural History, including work in the Wightman Midden on Sanibel Island in the 1970s. Dr. Bill Marquardt, archaeologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, lent full scientific support to the exhibit. He provided the accurate information displayed on the exhibit and enabled the authentic artifacts from the FLMNH to be on permanent loan to the Shell Museum. The exhibit was designed by Synergy, of Tallahassee, Florida, which is led by Mary Frances Wethington and John LoCastro. The mannequins, a young man and a boy, were manufactured by Third Dimension Studios of Vancouver, Canada. Cabinetry was fabricated by Mark Appleby of Fort Myers, Florida. David Meo, of Fort Myers, made the artifact replicas in use by the young man and the boy. Archaeologist and artist Merald Clark, formerly with FLMNH and now with the Synergy design team, painted the Pine Island mural that serves as the background of the exhibit, and provided expertise during exhibit installation. |
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| Return to the Calusa Exhibit | |