# Auckland Shell Club > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Auckland_Shell_Club > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Auckland_Shell_Club.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Shell_Club > Source revision: 1351286127 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The **Auckland Shell Club**, also known as the **Conchology Section of the Auckland Museum Institute**, is a New Zealand society concerned with the study of [molluscs](/source/Mollusc) and their shells. ## History The club first formed in 1931,[1] as the Conchology Section of the [Auckland Institute and Museum](/source/Auckland_Institute_and_Museum).[2] Sections are special interest groups or organisations housed within [Auckland War Memorial Museum](/source/Auckland_War_Memorial_Museum), and the Shell Club is the oldest.[3] It is one of only three shell clubs in [New Zealand](/source/New_Zealand).[4] The first facilitator of the club was [Baden Powell](/source/Baden_Powell_(malacologist)).[5] Powell held weekly after-school meetings and several Auckland schoolboys attended. Powell led field trips to [Hauraki Gulf](/source/Hauraki_Gulf) islands and Mon Desir Reef in [Takapuna](/source/Takapuna) to search for molluscs, and conducted a harbour survey, dredging the bottom of [Auckland Harbour](/source/Auckland_Harbour); club members would sort these dredge samples and sand for tiny shells. [Charles Fleming](/source/Charles_Fleming_(ornithologist)), Peter Bull, and [Richard Dell](/source/Richard_Dell) were all members of the club as teenagers. Bull went onto become an ornithologist and ecologist, Dell Curator of Molluscs at the [Dominion Museum](/source/Dominion_Museum), and Fleming became a palaeontologist studying [palaeobiogeography](/source/Palaeobiogeography) and [stratigraphy](/source/Stratigraphy).[6] Through the Shell Club, Charles Fleming was able to meet [Robert Falla](/source/Robert_Falla) and the Museum's director [Gilbert Archey](/source/Gilbert_Archey), both important to his later scientific career. Powell took Fleming, then aged just 14, with him to [Wanganui Museum](/source/Wanganui_Museum) to see the [Pliocene](/source/Pliocene) type specimens in [Henry Suter](/source/Henry_Suter)'s collection, and in 1933 the teenage naturalist accompanied Powell's expedition to the [Chatham Islands](/source/Chatham_Islands).[7] The second facilitator of the club was Czech malacologist [Walter Oliver Cernohorsky](/source/Walter_Oliver_Cernohorsky).[5] The club used to meet in a dedicated area of the [Auckland War Memorial Museum](/source/Auckland_War_Memorial_Museum)'s Malacology Department, where the club's library was also kept.[5] The jubilee celebrations of the Conchology Club was held in October 1980, with a dinner at the Mon Desir Hotel and a field trip to [Whangaparaoa Peninsula](/source/Whangaparaoa_Peninsula).[7] From 1962 to 2014, the shell club published *Poirieria*, a journal available at the [Biodiversity Heritage Library](/source/Biodiversity_Heritage_Library).[8] The Auckland Shell Club takes part in the New Zealand Shell Show, an event that occurs every two years, alternatively held in [Auckland](/source/Auckland) and [Wellington](/source/Wellington).[9][10] ## Current and former members - [Wilma M. Blom](/source/Wilma_M._Blom)[11] - [Albert Eugene Brookes](/source/Albert_Eugene_Brookes)[12] - [Walter Oliver Cernohorsky](/source/Walter_Oliver_Cernohorsky)[5] - [Richard Dell](/source/Richard_Dell)[2] - [Charles Fleming](/source/Charles_Fleming_(ornithologist))[6] - [Bruce Hayward](/source/Bruce_Hayward)[13] - [Margaret S. Morley](/source/Margaret_S._Morley)[14] - [Winston Ponder](/source/Winston_Ponder)[6] - [Baden Powell](/source/Baden_Powell_(malacologist))[5] - [Keith Arthur John Wise](/source/Keith_Arthur_John_Wise)[15] ## References 1. Abadia, Karina (1 May 2013). ["Shells are a passion"](https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/east-bays-courier/8612794/Shells-are-a-passion). *[Stuff](/source/Stuff_(website))*. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. Beu, Alan; Marshall, Bruce; Ponder, Winston (2003). "Richard Kenneth (‘Dick’) Dell, 1920–2002: obituary, bibliography and a list of his taxa". *Molluscan Research*. **23**: 85–99. 1. ["Sections"](https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/your-museum/get-involved/membership/about-the-institute/sections). [Auckland War Memorial Museum](/source/Auckland_War_Memorial_Museum). Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. Wassilieff, Maggy (12 June 2006). ["Shellfish - Shell collecting"](http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/shellfish/page-8). *[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand](/source/Te_Ara:_The_Encyclopedia_of_New_Zealand)*. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. Wikidata item [Q58628995](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q58628995) 1. Beechey, Des (December 2005). ["Dr Bill Rudman and Dr Winston Ponder retire"](http://www.malsocaus.org/docs/newsletter/MSA127.pdf). *Australasian Shell News*. **127**. Malacological Society of Australasia. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. Wikidata item [Q115763336](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115763336) 1. Crowley, Bianca (22 October 2015). ["From Scarborough to Svjatoj Nos: BHL’s latest in-copyright additions"](https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/from-scarborough-to-svjatoj-nos-bhls-latest-in-copyright-additions.html). *[Biodiversity Heritage Library](/source/Biodiversity_Heritage_Library)*. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. Mulligan, Jesse. ["She seeks sea shells"](https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2553589/she-seeks-sea-shells). *[Radio New Zealand](/source/Radio_New_Zealand)*. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. Cawley, Rose (1 May 2013). ["Shells on show"](https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/eastern-courier/8613125/Shells-on-show). *[Stuff](/source/Stuff_(website))*. Retrieved 24 November 2022. 1. ["Newsletter - September 2013"](http://www.aucklandshellclub.net.nz/sep2013.htm). *Auckland Shell Club*. Retrieved 25 November 2022. 1. Wikidata item [Q104815052](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104815052) 1. ["Newsletter - November 2003"](http://www.aucklandshellclub.net.nz/nov2003.htm). *Auckland Shell Club*. Retrieved 25 November 2022. 1. Bozetti, L & Sargent, Dennis M (2011). "A new species of Euprotomus (Gastropoda: Strombidae) from New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands". *Visaya*. **3** (3): 23–27. 1. Wikidata item [Q58623386](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q58623386) ## External links - [Official website](http://www.aucklandshellclub.net.nz/) - [*Poirieria* at the Biodiversity Heritage Library](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/117415) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Auckland Shell Club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Shell_Club) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Shell_Club?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.