 Shepard acquired a large collection of minerals, which at one time was unsurpassed in this country, and which in 1877 was purchased by Amherst College, but three years later was partially destroyed by fire.Early in life, he began the study and collection of meteorites, and his cabinet, long the largest in the country, likewise became the property of Amherst.His papers on this subject, from 1829 till 1882, were nearly forty in number and appeared chiefly in the "American Journal of Science".