The UPLB Museum of Natural History recently received a sizeable donation consisting of thousands of shell specimens from the Baysac family of Binan, Laguna. The Baysac Family bequeathed the specimens to the museum after several correspondences by Janet Martires of Los Baños-based NGO Yakap Kalikasan with Coordinator for Collections Management, Jeremy Carlo B. Naredo.

According to Naredo, the collection was accumulated by the late Prof. Paulo Emmanuel G. Baysac, a former professor at the University of Perpetual Help System Laguna and an hobbyist conchologist who passed away last 15 November 2020. Martires, a very good friend of Prof. Baysac, recommended that the shells be donated to the museum to serve as educational materials. The Baysac family acknowledged that the late professor would have wanted that the collection be put into good use, specially for student learning and research.

Hence, in a very simple but meaningful ceremony, the family and close friends of Prof. Baysac turned over the collection to Museum, represented by its Director Dr. Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez, last 11 January 2021. The Baysac family was represented by Raquel Baysac, Corazon Ibañez, Michael Garcia, Anne Buenaventura, Jhoanna April Baysac, Angeli Anne Salaysay, Anacleto Monez, Jr. and Katherine Anne Baysac.

During a short acceptance speech, Dr. Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez promised the members of the Baysac family that their donation to the museum will be taken care of. “Dr. Baysac’s collection will become an important part of the museum’s malacological collection and will be an important reference materials in the study of marine and terrestrial by students and other members of the academic community,” Gonzalez shared.