WASHINGTON, D.C. – Opening Thursday, June 18, at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, “From These Lands: Sharing Our Natural and Cultural Heritage” is a groundbreaking new exhibition commemorating America’s 250th anniversary through more than 600 rare objects and specimens representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories.
Drawn from the museum’s collection of more than 148 million artifacts and specimens, the 5,000-square-foot exhibition explores the people, landscapes, discoveries, traditions and defining moments that have shaped the United States across millions of years of natural and cultural history. Many of the objects on display have rarely or never before been exhibited publicly.
Representing South Carolina in the exhibition is a lettered olive snail shell (pictured), one of nine objects from the state featured in “From These Lands.” The United States has more than 95,000 miles of shoreline, including the territories and the Great Lakes. Of the 23 states with ocean coastlines, 16 have official state shells representing a wide variety of marine mollusks, from snails and oysters to scallops and clams…