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Inspired by Plants:

The Glass Flowers as a

Window into Botanical

Education

Glass model of Shortia
galacifolia (Oconee bells),
Model no. 700, Rudolf
Blaschka, 1903

Unless otherwise noted,
By Donald H. Pfister and Jennifer Brown, all images courtesy of
Harvard University Herbaria the Ware Collection of
Blaschka Glass Models
of Plants, Harvard
University Herbaria /
Harvard Museum of
Natural History. Photos
by Natalja Kent ©
President and Fellows of
Harvard College

hen we look at the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass presented a similar
Models of Plants at Harvard University, generally known as problem – think of a
Wthe Glass Flowers, we see exceptional representations of wilting bouquet, spent
plants that fool the eye and inspire wonder. flowers in a garden or
The Glass Flowers exhibit is one of the major attractions at the the favorite flower
Harvard Museum of Natural History. This remarkable collection is the pressed between the
product of the father and son artists-naturalists, Leopold (1822-1895) pages of a book. For
and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939). These renowned artists and scientific study, plants
glassworkers created life-like models that allow museum visitors to are pressed and dried,
experience both the familiar and the exotic. Their masterful work, and then typically
informed by detailed studies of each plant from nature, employed mounted on paper to
inventive methods to shape and color glass; they developed methods to be stored in an
mimic the surface textures and colors of leaves, branches, and flowers. herbarium. Goodale
Why did the Blaschkas produce this collection and who inspired was planning exhibits
them in this endeavor? To answer this question, we look deeply into the for the newly formed
initiation of the project and the era in which the models were made. Botanical Museum
and, inspired by the
zoological models, he
The Seed is Planted
George Lincoln Goodale, the first realized that the
director of Harvard’s Botanical Blaschkas would surely
Museum, was inspired to seek out be able to transfer the
the Blaschkas after seeing their glass techniques used to
models of marine invertebrate create the invertebrate
animals, such as jellyfish and sea animal models to
cucumbers, on display in Harvard’s create glass models of
Museum of Comparative Zoology. plants. Obtaining such Leopold (seated), Carolina, and Rudolf Blaschka
The glass artist Leopold Blaschka made a collection would be in their garden.
his first glass models of invertebrate the cornerstone of his photo: The Archives of Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka and the Ware Collection
animals in 1863 and in 1876 Rudolf offi- new museum. of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, Harvard University Herbaria
cially joined his father in the enterprise. They
developed a successful business producing Germinated with Funding and Finesse
models for institutions and private collections The Blaschka family was not new to working with glass. Their
around the world. heritage is believed to trace back to glassworkers from fifteenth-century
These soft-bodied organisms lose their life-like Venice. Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka were born in northern Bohemia,
appearance when preserved, but the Blaschkas’ highly now part of the Czech Republic, but Leopold moved his family to
realistic models allowed people to observe and study Dresden, Germany in 1863 where Goodale visited their studio in 1886.
invertebrate animals as they might appear in nature. During that visit, he persuaded the Blaschkas to make plant models for the
The presentation of plants in the museum setting Botanical Museum. Goodale had secured funding for this collection from
his former student, Mary Lee Ware, and her mother, Elizabeth C. Ware.
A glass model of a tube worm (Riftia pachyptila). photo: The Guardian

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