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Many other books aimed at introducing plants to the general public
were published during the middle to late 19th century. Perhaps there
was no period during which so many books appeared that were aimed
at this audience of school-aged children and curious adults. For
example, Familiar Lectures on Botany by Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps
went through 17 editions and many printings from 1829 to 1872.
Alphonso Wood, during the period between 1849 and 1889,
successfully published a number of popular botany books. All this is to
say that in the late Victorian period, at the time the glass flower
collection was initiated, there was an eager public curious to see plants
that they may have known from their studies but had not seen in real
life. At that time even the banana and the mango, that we now take for
granted, were considered rare and exotic.

The Master Gardener
Goodale, one of Gray’s students, carried on much of Gray’s work in
the Harvard Botanical Garden and in teaching. Goodale also focused
on presenting plants to an inquiring public. His Wild Flowers of
America was first published in 1876 with illustrations by Isaac Sprague,
the foremost botanical illustrator in America of the time. This now
Glass model of Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England aster),
Model no. 360, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, 1893 sought-after volume, which went through many printings, illustrates
flowers in 51 accurately colored lithographic plates. It also may have
inspired Goodale to seek ways to encourage botanical literacy beyond
For the next three years, the Blaschkas divided their time between
producing glass models of plants exclusively for Harvard and inverte- the printed page.
Goodale’s vision for the Botanical Museum, and that of his successor
brate animal models for other institutions. In 1890, a contract was Oakes Ames, was to introduce the general public to how people use
negotiated that allowed them to work only on the Glass Flowers. plants and their dependency on them. To that end, materials were
Following his father’s death in 1895 Rudolf carried on, and the Wares assembled to show the plants themselves and the products derived from
remained devoted benefactors. them. The Glass Flowers provided a way to admirably present plants in
No one could have anticipated that the project would continue until
1936 when Rudolf’s final models arrived at Harvard. Over the course the museum setting. Among the models from the Blaschka studio are
of those fifty years, the Blaschkas produced 4,300 glass models
representing 780 species of plants, fungi, and algae. What Goodale may
not have fully realized was the precision and care the Blaschkas would Glass model of Nymphaea odorata (American white
employ in portraying every minute detail of flower and leaf structure. waterlily), Model no. 731, Rudolf Blaschka, 1906
Such precision was honed by their scientific study of the plants they
rendered. Indeed, each model is a three-dimensional portrait inspired
by detailed study of a living plant.

Beneficiaries in Bloom
But why and for whom was this exceptional collection created? The
exhibit was intended to teach, and was aimed not just at students
studying botany but also for the general public.
The public audience of the 1880s and 1890s was generally well-aware
of plants and their identities. Botany taught in schools and
colleges was a regular part of the curriculum. Indeed, Harvard botanist
Asa Gray (1810-1888) lead

Botany for Young People: How Plants Grow the way in the botanical
by Asa Gray
education of children and
Courtesy of the Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University
adults alike. In 1842 he
published The Botanical
Text-Book, the first of what
would become a series of
general textbooks and field
guides. Gray’s Manual of
Botany published in 1848
(and subsequent editions
until 1950) allowed the
identification of plants
from Northeastern North
America and fueled an inter-
est in plant identification.
Generations of students and
naturalists identified the
plants they found using
Gray’s Manual. Gray also
wrote Botany for Young
People: How Plants Grow
(1858) and later under the
same main title, How Plants
Behave (1872).

28 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles