The Seashells of an Iconic Public Artwork: Diversity and Provenance of the Mollusks of the Watts Towers

Abstract

The Watts Towers (WT), an iconic Los Angeles artwork created by Sabato Rodia in 1921–1954, is covered with mosaics whose elements include thousands of mollusk shells. Little is known about the diversity or sources of these shells. Here, we document the diversity of mollusk shells present in the WT and use data on their characteristics to make inferences about their provenance. We identified shells of 34 species, 24 of them bivalves (clams and their relatives) and 10 gastropods (snails). Almost all (29/34) of these species are native to southern California shorelines, especially those of bays and estuaries. Rodia could have accessed these sites on foot, by automobile, or by using the Red Car trolley system. Some of the bivalve shells bear drill holes made by naticid gastropods, suggesting that they were collected post-mortem, presumably after they had washed up on beaches. These observations are consistent with the sparse documentary evidence on the origin of the shells of the WT. This detailed information on the diversity of the seashells of the WT should be of utility to conservators, and of interest to scholars of and visitors to the WT.