McClung Permanent Exhibits

            This exhibit was reinstalled and expanded in 2005.  Located on
the Museum's second floor, the exhibition is divided into three broad
subject areas: the biology and diversity of freshwater mussels; the Native
American use of freshwater mussels; and the commercial use of freshwater
mussels - the button industry and the pearl industry, both cultured and
natural.  In addition, the exhibit offers two video segments, one on the
life cycle of freshwater mussels and the other on freshwater pearl
cultivation in Tennessee.  The exhibit is sponsored by Knox County, the
Lucille S. Thompson Family Foundation, and the American Pearl Company, Inc.
in Nashville.
         The largest of the exhibit cases features the biology of
freshwater mussels and includes examples of the major groups of mollusks
along with the largest living bivalve mollusk, the giant clam from the
South Pacific.  Thirty-two species of freshwater mussels are exhibited to
show variation and diversity corollated in part with habitat.   Ecological
change is reflected in extinct species, loss of habitat due to water
quality, and the introduction of new species - the Asian Clam and the Zebra
Mussel.
         Native American use of freshwater mussels is the subject of a
second case.  Food was the primary use of freshwater mussels and enormous
shell deposits are found at archaeological sites along the Tennessee
River.  Crushed shell was used by the Mississippian Period Indians (A.D.
900-1600) for temper which was mixed with the clay to strengthen it when
fired.  Other uses included scrapers, hoes, and spoons.  Freshwater pearls
were occasionally strung or used as insets for eyes on animal effigy
pipes.  Interestingly, Native Americans did not use freshwater mussels for
ornaments, using instead marine shells such as the whelk (Busycon sp.) to
produce gorgets, beads, and ear pins.
         The third exhibit addresses the commercial role of freshwater
mussels.  In 1887, a German pearl-button maker named J. F. Boepple
immigrated to the United States.  From the beginning, he realized that the
seemingly endless supply of freshwater mussel shells, whose beautiful
luster and durability will withstand even the severest laundering, would
provide the raw material for a new and significant industry in America.  In
1912, nearly 200 plants in the United States utilized valves of freshwater
mussels for the manufacture of buttons.  The button industry boomed until
the development and refinement of plastics following World War II.
         Pearls occur naturally in the freshwater mussels of Tennessee and
have been used for jewelry since prehistoric times.  The freshwater pearl
was named the State Gem of Tennessee by the Legislature in 1979.  In 1963,
Tennessean John Latendresse began experiments in nucleating various mussel
species and after 20 years of research and development, the first crop of
cultured pearls was harvested from a pearl farm on Kentucky Lake.  The new
exhibit includes wonderful examples of both natural and Tennessee cultured
pearls provided by the American Pearl Company and the Latendresse family.