Underestimated: unexpected. Natural history collections in regional museums. A case study on the collections of molluscan shells in the Doncaster City Museum & Art Gallery.

This paper analyses the molluscan collections in the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery. Collections relevant to historic regional biodiversity distributions are present in the Hargreaves and Morehouse collections. The Morehouse collection illustrates the inter connectedness of collectors and collections during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unrecorded transfers of collections between museums especially that of Bean material from Scarborough Museum to Doncaster were uncovered. The Bean material contains specimens of historic and possible type significance. This paper concludes that smaller regional collections contribute valuable additions to the UK and global biodiversity collection resource and warrant further research and enhanced access.