HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (or simply the ''Glass Flowers'') is a collection of highly realistic
glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...
botanical 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 wo ...
models 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 ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. Created by
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 ...
from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, near
Dresden, Germany Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth la ...
, the collection was commissioned by George Lincoln Goodale, the first director of Harvard's Botanical Museum, and was financed by
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 ...
and her mother Elizabeth C. Ware. It includes 847 life-size models (representing 780 species and varieties of plants in 164 families) and some 3,000 detail models such as of plant parts and anatomical sections. The collection comprises approximately 4,400 individual glass models representing over 830 plant species. Among the models, 64 glass sculptures depict the effect of
fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...
, in particular plant diseases of ''
Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are ''Alchemilla'' (270), ''Sorbus ...
'' by phytopathogens.


Background

Starting in 1863 the Blaschkas had a thriving business making glass models of
marine invertebrate Marine invertebrates are the invertebrates that live in marine habitats. Invertebrate is a blanket term that includes all animals apart from the vertebrate members of the chordate phylum. Invertebrates lack a vertebral column, and some have evo ...
s, selling them to museums and private collectors in a global enterprise (see ). At the time botanical specimens were pressed, carefully labeled, and put on display. The pressing lost the three-dimensional aspect of the specimens, and the formerly living tissues lost their color. In 1886 the Blaschkas were approached by Professor Goodale, who after seeing their marine models, went to Dresden to ask them to make a series of glass botanical models for Harvard, which would be three-dimensional and with stable color.http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/goodale-george.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir Leopold was hesitant but eventually agreed to make some sample models which, though badly damaged in customs, convinced Goodale of their value in botanical teaching. To fund the project Goodale approached his former student Mary Lee Ware and her mother, Elizabeth C. Ware, who were already liberal benefactors of Harvard's botanical department. The original arrangement (in 1887) provided that the Blaschkas would work half time on the project, but in 1890 a new arrangement called for them to work full-time.Schultes, Richard Evans., William A. Davis, and Hillel Burger. The Glass Flowers at Harvard. New York: Dutton, 1982. Print. The work continued until 1936, at which point Leopold and Elizabeth had both died. The collection is formally dedicated to Dr. Charles Eliot Ware, the deceased father and husband of Mary and Elizabeth Ware, respectively.


The models

The models are glass with wire supports (internal or external), glue, a variety of organic media, and paint or enamel coloring. The ''Boston Globe'' has called them "anatomically perfect and, given all the glass-workers who've tried and failed, unreproducible." It is often said that the Blaschkas employed secret techniques now lost; in fact their techniques were common at the time, but their skill, enthusiasm, and meticulous study and observation of their subjects in life were extraordinary, which Leopold ascribed to familial tradition, in a letter to Mary Lee Ware: "Many people think that we have some secret apparatus by which we can squeeze glass suddenly into these forms ... The only way to become a glass modeler of skill, I have often said to people, is to get a good great-grandfather who loved glass." The Blaschkas' primary technique was
lampworking Lampworking is a type of glasswork in which a torch or lamp is used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the moder ...
, in which glass is melted over a flame fed by air from a foot-powered bellows, then shaped using tools to pinch, pull or cut; forms were blown as well. Their old-fashioned Bohemian lamp-working table is part of the museum exhibit. Over the years Rudolf brought more and more of the entire production process under his personal control, eventually even manufacturing his own glass and colorants. Botanist Donald Schnell has called the models "enchanting", and relates his surprise at finding that the models faithfully depict an unpublished detail of a bee's behavior while pollinating a particular planta detail which he had privately hypothesized. Whitehouse and Small wrote that "the superiority in design and construction of the Blaschka models surpasses all modern model making to date and the skill and art of the Blaschkas rests in peace for eternity."


Public response

The Glass Flowers is one of the most noted tourist attractions of the Boston area. More than 210,000 visitors view the collection annually. In 1936, when Harvard invited the public to tour the campus in honor of its tercentenary, a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' reporter taking the tour commented "Tercentenary or no, the chief focus of interest remains the famous glass flowers, the first of which was put on exhibition in 1893, and which with additions at intervals since, have never failed to draw exclamations of wonder or disbelief from visitors." Many visitors initially believe the Glass Flowers to be real, organic, plants and soon after entering or leaving exhibition inquire "Where are the glass flowers?" At least two poems feature the flowers:
Mark Doty Mark Doty (born August 10, 1953) is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work ''My Alexandria.'' He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. Early life Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee to Lawrence an ...
(winner of the
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
for Poetry in 2008), "The Ware Collection of Glass Flowers and Fruit, Harvard Museum", in ''My Alexandria'', 1993,
Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
wrote in a poem, "Silence",


See also

* Artificial flowers *
Glassblowing Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a Blowpipe (tool), blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer'' ...
*
Lampworking Lampworking is a type of glasswork in which a torch or lamp is used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the moder ...


References


External links


The Glass Flowers (Harvard)

The Glass Flowers (Corning)The Blaschka Archives
held by the Rakow Library of the Corning Museum of Glass. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
The Story of Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka

Flowers Out of Glass (Penn State)

How Were The Glass Flowers Made?
{{authority control Harvard University museums Works about flowers Herbaria in the United States History of glass Natural history museums in Massachusetts Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts Glass works of art