Herbert D. Athearn and the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks

Abstract

Herbert D. Athearn (1923–2011) was an avid student of freshwater mollusks. He named his private shell collection “The Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks”, which was meticulously organized at his residence. This collection was curated to current museum standards with detailed labels, all lots with catalog numbers, and all unionoid valves with catalog numbers written in India ink. Specimens’ collecting dates span between 1850 and 2005, with 23,344 cataloged lots containing over 3000 lots of imperiled and extinct taxa. All data for each of the lots are handwritten in paper catalogs. Many lots contain growth series from the smallest juveniles to the largest specimens seen. He traded extensively with collectors worldwide, obtaining specimens from 84 countries. This collection was donated to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in 2007. To date, 64 percent of this collection has been databased using a relational database, totaling 589,995 specimens. The collection consists of bivalves, primarily Unionidae, Margaritiferidae, and Sphaeriidae, as well as gastropods. There are 73 families represented, with the greatest abundance found in freshwater Pleuroceridae. The Athearn collection donation included his correspondence, his library, field notes, and USGS topographic maps with marked field localities.

1. Introduction

Shell collecting has been around for over 10,000 years; the first documented collector was the Roman Emperor Caligula, who thought he had captured the ocean by collecting shells. Something in humans drives us to know more about what is out there, and there is this inner need to bring something back to remind us of our journey. The role of the non-professional malacologist or shell collector has long been recognized as necessary to the study of mollusks. These individuals have a deep appreciation for mollusks, and their collections reflect a broad spectrum of interests ranging from general mollusks to more specific genera, families, or mollusks from limited geographic locales. For example, William J. Clench, former Curator of Mollusks at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University, observed that MCZ’s mollusk collection was started by John G. Anthony, an amateur who worked as an accountant [1]. Clench [1] remarked that nearly 50 percent of the accessions of the MCZ mollusk collection were the results of amateur collections. He also remarked that many major museum mollusk collections are based on or contain significant contributions from amateur collections. The assessment of the recent mollusk collections of North America was reported by Solem [2], who observed that:

“One unusual feature of malacological work is the great number and size of private collections and the large degree to which systematic and faunistic work on mollusks is dependent upon collecting efforts and publications by “non-professionals,” people not employed as malacologists and university biologists. Probably 85% of the mollusks in major institutional collections today are materials collected by amateurs rather than professional biologists”.

Solem [2] summarized the locations, sizes, and resources of significant mollusk collections and included a section on private collections of recent mollusks. He enumerated 12 extensive collections of the time, including Leslie Hubricht’s collection of 25,000 lots and 300,000 specimens of land snails (now at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA) and H.D. Athearn’s freshwater mollusks from eastern North America with 13,000 lots and 328,000 specimens.

2. Herbert D. Athearn’s Biographical Background

Herbert D. Athearn (1923–2011) was a passionate researcher of freshwater mollusks and a distinguished private shell collector, contributing significantly to the appreciation and understanding of these remarkable organisms [3]. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Athearn began keeping field notes on his freshwater collection in 1940, which was interrupted by his service during World War II. After the war, Athearn returned home and, for seven years, volunteered with Dr. William J. Clench in the Mollusk Section of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, learning the basics of museum curation. In 1955, he and his family moved to Cleveland, Tennessee, where he spent the rest of his life working primarily for the U.S. Postal Service. Most of his spare time, weekends, and holidays were spent either collecting freshwater mollusks across the southeastern United States or curating his collection. He made two trips to Mexico and worked with Arthur H. Clark, collecting freshwater mollusks across Canada [4,5]. His collection of Sphaeriids is noteworthy because many specimens were collected and/or identified by the late Reverend H.B. Herrington, a recognized authority in this group. Athearn remarked in field notes that the exactness of collection localities should be based on distance from the post office in town and not the city limits, which change with time. He reported the ecological conditions for each site visited, noting if no mollusks were collected and why he thought they were absent. Athearn collected USGS 7.5 min quadrangle topographic maps for the areas he was collecting from, marking those areas as highly beneficial in finding the more challenging locales. Athearn was collecting when few malacologists were active and there was significant dam construction in the southeastern United States [6,7,8,9]. When a dam was completed, he would have his daughter, Marjorie, outline the high water level of the reservoir and then collect from the dam upstream to the top of the reservoir.

Athearn was awarded one of the first two Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Willam J. Clench Memorial Awards in 2001 (Figure 1). This award is for “singular accomplishments and long-term contributions that have advanced the natural history and understanding of freshwater mollusks”. Athearn published 16 papers in 6 different journals. (1952–2004) [3]. He described three new species of southeastern United States Unionidae: Alasmidonta mccordi, Lampsilis haddletoni, and Villosa choctawensis [10]. He was honored with four eponyms: two Pleuroceridae, one Physidae, and one Unionidae—Pleurobema athearni [11]. His handwritten cataloged collection contained specimens of freshwater bivalves and gastropods in 23,344 lots. The freshwater bivalves are all dry and were mostly live-collected. The gastropods were preserved in methyl alcohol and allowed to dry, so many still have dried tissue that might be used in current genetic research. The handwritten cataloged entries began in July 1940 and stopped on 27 June 2000.

3. Results: Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks

Athearn‘s collection, The Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks (MFM), was well curated, containing specimens collected between 1850 and 2005. The Museum was contained in his house in Cleveland, Tennessee (Figure 2). The museum cabinets occupied much of the house and were custom-built into it (Figure 3). The cabinets and drawers were styled after the old cabinets in the Mollusk Collection at the MCZ (Figure 4 and Figure 5).

The first specimen cataloged was one Anodonta implicata Say, 1829 [now Utterbackiana implicata]. The first gift to the MFM was a specimen of Elliptio complanata from R.I. Johnson in December 1940.

The handwritten museum catalog entries extended across two adjoining pages, detailing Athearn’s collection of 23,344 lots. The last lot Athearn cataloged was on 27 June 2000. He first used printed labels with “H.D. Athearn Coll. Taunton Mass” and later used printed labels with “Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks” across the top. Athearn then hand-wrote the identification, date collected, collectors, and locality on them.

4. Discussion

This collection contains over 3000 lots of imperiled and extinct taxa. He traded extensively with collectors worldwide, obtaining specimens from 84 countries, and his collection contained 7238 localities worldwide (Figure 6).

In 2007, the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks collection was donated by Athearn to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences [12] (Figure 7). This collection information was databased using Access, a relational database. The total portion of the collection databased represents 64% of the cataloged collection, totaling 590,239 specimens (

Table 1. Summary of the currently databased bivalve lots in the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks.

Freshwater Bivalves	Families	Genera	Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens
Cyrenidae	1	2	2	246	4942
Dreissenidae	1	2	2	13	179
Hyriidae	1	11	25	50	312
Iridinidae	1	2	4	5	22
Margaritiferidae	1	3	7	37	334
Mycetopodidae	1	5	12	32	161
Sphaeriidae	1	5	48	1371	55,234
Unionidae	1	87	331	3647	45,197
Total Freshwater Bivalves	8	117	429	5401	106,381
Marine/Brackish Water Bivalves	Families	Genera	Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens
Arcidae	1	2	2	2	8
Mactridae	1	2	3	17	99
Myidae	1	1	2	2	23
Mytilidae	1	2	2	4	50
Pholadidae	1	1	1	1	3
Psammobiidae	1	1	1	1	6
Semelidae	1	1	1	1	2
Tellinidae	1	1	2	4	38
Veneridae	1	2	4	4	24
Total Marine Bivalves	9	13	18	36	253
Summary Bivalves	Families	Genera	Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens
Total Freshwater Bivalves	8	117	429	5401	106,381
Total Marine/Brackish Bivalves	9	13	18	36	253
Total Bivalves	17	130	447	5437	106,634

,

Table 2. Summary of the databased gastropod lots in the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks.

Freshwater Gastropods
Family	Number Families	Number Genera	Number Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens	Number Countries	Number States (USA)
Amnicolidae	1	5	6	215	13,669	7	31
Ampullariidae	1	7	22	143	594	17	1
Bithyniidae	1	1	1	22	1241	2	3
Chilinidae	1	1	1	2	13	2	0
Cochliopidae	1	4	5	26	3521	2	4
Hydrobiidae	1	20	35	106	6293	10	24
Lithoglyphidae	1	6	29	118	12,348	3	17
Lymnaeidae	1	11	54	792	17,467	10	44
Melanopsidae	1	1	12	15	150	3	0
Pachychilidae	1	6	15	21	535	10	0
Paludomidae	1	3	3	3	14	3	0
Physidae	1	6	35	1229	26,718	7	46
Planorbidae	1	23	65	1311	21,579	17	44
Pleuroceridae	1	7	157	4030	351,718	3	29
Pomatiopsidae	1	2	5	12	107	2	5
Semisulcospiridae	1	1	6	35	751	1	3
Tateidae	1	1	1	4	49	3	0
Thiaridae	1	10	22	45	732	18	2
Valvatidae	1	1	9	103	4178	2	18
Viviparidae	1	9	35	908	18,481	20	34
Total Freshwater Gastropods	22	125	518	9140	480,158
Marine/Brackish Gastropods
Family	Family	Number Genera	Number Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens	Number Countries	Number States (USA)
Amphibolidae	1	1	1	1	2	1	0
Batillariidae	1	1	1	1	280	1	1
Cerithiidae	1	1	2	2	9	2	0
Cerithiopsidae	1	1	1	2	106	2	1
Cocculinidae	1	1	1	1	14	1	0
Ellobiidae	1	5	8	9	24	7	1
Littorinidae	1	2	2	3	41	2	1
Lottiidae	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Nassariidae	1	2	2	3	69	1	2
Naticidae	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Neritidae	1	10	27	45	745	18	4
Planaxidae	1	1	1	7	7	1	1
Potomididae	1	4	8	13	195	6	1
Terebridae	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Total Marine/Brackish Gastropods 14		32	57	90	1495
Terrestrial Gastropods
Family	Number Families	Number Genera	Number Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens	Number Countries	Number States (USA)
Achatinidae	1	2	2	2	109	2	1
Camaenidae	1	6	10	13	82	4	3
Cerionidae	1	1	14	14	215	3	1
Chronidae	1	1	1	1	1	1	0
Discidae	1	2	1	3	22	2	1
Gastrodontidae	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Haplotrematidae	1	1	2	2	3	2	0
Helicarionidae	1	1	2	2	34	1	0
Helicidae	1	2	2	3	13	2	1
Helicinidae	1	1	1	1	6	1	0
Hemisinidae	1	4	8	19	64	3	0
Hygromiidae	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Neocyclotidae	1	1	1	1	59	1	1
Othalicidae	1	6	11	23	139	8	4
Partulidae	1	1	1	1	9	1	1
Polygyridae	1	7	8	10	67	2	6
Solaropsidae	1	1	1	1	4	1	0
Spiraxidae	1	1	1	3	6	1	2
Succineidae	1	5	20	111	816	4	26
Urocopitidae	1	1	1	1	8	1	0
Xanthonychidae	1	1	1	1	48	1	0
Zonitidae	1	1	1	1	2	1	1
Total Terrestrial Gastropods	20	48	89	215	1708
Total Databased Gastropods	56	205	664	9445	483,361

,

Table 3. Summary of the bivalves and gastropods databased in the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks to date.

Bivalves	Family	Genus	Number Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens
Freshwater Bivalves	8	117	429	5401	106,381
Marine/Brackish Bivalves	9	13	18	36	253
Tota; Databased Bivalves	17	130	447	5437	106,634
Gastropods	Family	Genus	Number Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens
Freshwater Gastropoda	22	125	518	9140	480,158
Marine/Brackish Gastropods	14	32	57	90	1495
Terrestrial Gastropods	20	48	89	215	1708
Total Databased Gastropods	56	205	664	9445	483,361
Total Mollusks Databased	73	335	1111	14,882	589,995

and

Table 4. Percentage of the databased Athearn Collection that is freshwater.

	Families	Genera	Number Species	Number Lots	Total Specimens
Freshwater Bivalves	8	120	402	5584	106,442
Freshwater Gastropods	22	125	518	9140	483,361
Total Freshwater	30	245	920	14,724	586,600
Total databased	73	338	1084	15,065	590,239
Percent Freshwater	41.1%	72,4%	84.9%	97.7%	99.4%

; Supplementary Table S1). The collection contains bivalves from 17 families, primarily in the families Unionidae, Margaritiferidae, and Sphaeriidae (Table 1, Supplementary Table S1), and gastropods (Table 2), represented by 56 families, with the most abundant being the freshwater Pleuroceridae (Table 2). Taxa from terrestrial, brackish, and marine environments were also included in the collection (Table 1 and Table 2). The databased portion of the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks represented by freshwater mollusk specimens is 99.4% (Table 4). The freshwater bivalve order Unionida is represented in the Athearn Collection by five families: Hyriidae, Iridinidae, Margaritiferidae, Mycetopodidae, and Unionidae (Table 1). In this order, the distribution of the specimens databased in the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks are primarily from the North American continent, with 44,273 specimens representing 95.56% of the databased collection (Figure 8).

The Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks also contains 52 type lots, including mostly paratypes and topotypes. The collection is focused on the eastern United States, Canada, and to some degree from Mexico, as well as a total of 58 other countries represented in the bivalve section and 62 other countries represented in the gastropod section. Altogether, there are a total of 84 countries represented in the Museum of Fluviatile Mollusks.

The donation of the Athearn collection included the cataloged specimens, his correspondences, a library of books, a journal, reprints, and duplicate specimens from 2000 cataloged bivalve and gastropod lots that he used for trading. The collection contained around 3500 USGS topographic maps covering various regions across the United States and Canada, along with his original field notebooks. Also included were approximately 700 field collections of freshwater mollusks made during the 1970s that were wrapped in newspapers and stored on the second floor of his house. These unprocessed collections have not been opened, washed, or identified. It is known that these collections from the eastern United States contain rare, endangered, and extinct freshwater mussels as well as a great variety of freshwater gastropods. We have found that one lot contained five female Epioblasma haysiana (Lea, 1834) specimens, a species now extinct. This collection includes the largest known specimen of Alasmidonta arcula (Lea, 1838) and a growth series of Elliptio spinosa (Lea, 1836). These collections all have the Athearn field number with them. These field numbers are found in his field notebooks, which contain a wealth of data and observations.

Athearn’s fieldnotes and catalogs present a gold mine of information including collecting conditions, growth series, other animals observed, and some of the last specimens of some extinct species, such as the “Last Call for Gyrotoma” from the Coosa River. Athearn noted in his museum catalog, when entering the collection, he made in 1965:

“24 shells, dry. This was the last call to collect Apella from a creek anywhere in the World. In a few weeks, this station was inundated by Lock 3 Reservoir. The genus does not live above this shoal. I strongly suspect it also was not found in any other creek. As the water level was high today, only species which move to the stream margin at high water were collected.” 2 May 1965.

Apella Anthony, 1843 is an invalid name based on an unknown species and was later shown to be a synonym of Gyrotoma Shuttleworth, 1845 in the freshwater gastropod family Pleuroceridae. All six recognized species of Gyrotoma were restricted to the Coosa River in Alabama and are considered extinct [13,14,15].

5. Conclusions

Databasing of the Athearn-cataloged specimens is still in progress, with about 64 percent of the collection completed. Over 350 duplicate or “stock” lots of bivalves and gastropods have been reassociated with their original lots and have been incorporated into the NCSM collection, with another 800 Unionidae lots of “stock” lots to be reassociated. The 1970s’ collections await curation and databasing. The Athearn collection, library, maps, and archives are available for study. The databased information is available for searching on the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences website https://naturalsciences.org/research-collections/collections/mollusks-collection (accessed on 5 March 2025). The Museum is updating the searchable online Mollusk database to include the field “Collection” to facilitate searching for the Athearn and other major collections donated to the Mollusk Section of the Museum.