George Lincoln Goodale (August 3, 1839 – April 12, 1923) was an American
botanist and the first director of Harvard’s Botanical Museum (now part of the
Harvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum housed in the University Museum Building, located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features 16 galleries with 12,000 speciments drawn from the col ...
). It was he who commissioned the making of the University's legendary
Glass Flowers
The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (or simply the ''Glass Flowers'') is a collection of highly realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Created by Leopold and Rudo ...
collection.
Early life
Goodale was born in
Saco,
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
. He graduated from
Amherst College in 1860 and from
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
in 1863, after which he practiced in
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
, Maine, until 1867.
Career
![Goodale in laboratory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Goodale_in_laboratory.jpg)
Goodale became
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of
natural science and applied
chemistry at
Bowdoin. In 1872, he was appointed instructor in
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
and
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
lecturer on
vegetable physiology at
Harvard, and advanced to assistant professor of the latter subject a year later. In 1878, he became a professor of botany and the
Fisher professor of natural science, a
chair formerly held by
Asa Gray.
Glass Flowers
At some point during his career as a Harvard/Radcliffe Professor, Goodale taught avid Botany student
Mary Lee Ware
Mary Lee Ware, (Jan. 7, 1858 – Jan. 9, 1937) daughter of Elizabeth Cabot (Lee) Ware and Charles Eliot Ware, was born to a wealthy Bostonian family and, with her mother, was the principal sponsor of the Harvard Museum of Natural History's famou ...
- born to the Elizabeth
Cabot Lee (from then on Elizabeth C. Ware) and
Dr. Charles Eliot Ware; a twist of fate that would turn critical later. After 1879, Goodale served as the first
director
Director may refer to:
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* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
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* ''D ...
of Harvard's
Botanical Museum, but filling it was a slight problem for, at that time, Harvard was the global center of botanical study. As such, Goodale wanted the best, but the only used method was showcasing pressed and carefully labeled specimens — a methodology that offered a twofold problem: being pressed, the specimens were two-dimensional and tended to lose their color. Hence they were hardly the ideal teaching tools.
[Glass Flowers: The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants]
/ref>[National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]
/ref> However, Harvard had recently procured several glass marine invertebrates made by German glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
Leopold Blaschka (27 May 1822 – 3 July 1895) and his son Rudolf Blaschka (17 June 1857 – 1 May 1939) were glass artists from Dresden, Germany, native to the Bohemian (Czech)–German borderland, and known for the production of biological m ...
and, upon seeing them, Professor Goodale realized that glass flowers would solve his problem[ as, being glass, they were both three-dimensional and would retain their color. The only issue lay in convincing the Blaschkas to undertake such a project and how to fund it. The former took some time - and an advance payment of 200 ]marks
Marks may refer to:
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* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...
- to accomplish, but eventually the famed glass artists agreed to send test-models to the U.S. and, although damaged in customs, the fragments convinced Goodale that Blaschka glass art was a more than worthy educational investment.
But investments require fund, and to cover such an expensive enterprise Goodale approached his former student Mary Lee Ware and her mother with his idea. Being independently wealthy and (already) liberal benefactors of Harvard's botanical department, Mary convinced her mother to agree to underwrite the consignment of the uncannily lifelike models they both were enchanted by. The contract signed dictated that the Blaschkas need only work half-time on the models (beginning in 1887) but, in 1890, they and Goodale - signing on behalf of the Wares - signed an updated version that allowed Leopold and Rudolf to work on them full-time; some sources detail the agreement as a shift from a 3-year contract to a 10-year one, agreed to once Goodale convinced Mary and her mother of the wisdom in doing so. Either way, the Wares liberally funded the entire enterprise.[ To this day the now world famous ]Glass Flowers
The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (or simply the ''Glass Flowers'') is a collection of highly realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Created by Leopold and Rudo ...
are still on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum housed in the University Museum Building, located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features 16 galleries with 12,000 speciments drawn from the col ...
— the exhibit itself dedicated to Dr. Charles Eliot Ware (the deceased father and husband of Mary L. and Elizabeth C. Ware respectively), the official name being ''The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants''. Moreover, unlike the glass marine invertebrates — which were "a profitable global mail-order business",[ the Glass Flowers were commissioned solely for and are unique to Harvard.
]
Other
In 1889, he served as president of the American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and o ...
and president
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* President (government title)
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* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also had a wife and son, the latter of whom, Francis Goodale, is known to have attended Mary Lee Ware's funeral on January 12 at King's Chapel
King's Chapel is an American independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed ...
. Goodale died in 1923 after, and presumably as a result of, an unknown illness. He was succeeded by Professor Oakes Ames, who takes up Goodale’s work at the suggestion of Prof. Henshaw and is eventually made the second director of Harvard's Botanical Museum by President Lowell, becoming an additional contact of Mary Lee Ware regarding the as yet unfinished Glass Flowers enterprise.[Ware, Mary Lee. "HOW WERE THE GLASS FLOWERS MADE?" Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 19, no. 6 (1961): 125-36. .]
Miscellaneous
In addition to monographs and contributions to scientific journals, his publications include:
''Wild Flowers of North America''
(1882)
*''Vegetable Physiology'' (1885)
*''Vegetable Histology'' (1885)
''Useful Plants of the Future''
(1891)
*''Concerning a Few Common Plants'' (1879); third edition, 1903
References
External links
*
The Glass Flowers (Harvard)
The Glass Flowers (Corning)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodale, George Lincoln
Harvard Medical School alumni
Harvard University faculty
Bowdoin College faculty
American botanists
Physicians from Maine
1839 births
1923 deaths
Amherst College alumni
Academics from Portland, Maine
People from Saco, Maine