Glass Flowers
Encyclopedia
The Glass Flowers, formally The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, is a famous collection of highly-realistic glass
botanical models
at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
at Harvard University
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, Germany
, near Dresden. They were commissioned by Professor George Lincoln Goodale
, founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum, for the purpose of teaching botany, and financed by Goodale's former student, Mary Lee Ware and her mother, Elizabeth Ware. Over 3000 models, of 847 different plant species, were made.
In an article for the Journal of American Conservation, authors McNally and Buschini note that "the Glass Flowers are not made simply of glass. Many are painted (particularly models made in the years 1886–95) and varnished; some parts are glued together, and some of the models contain wire armatures within the glass stems. Coloring of the models ranges from paint to colored glass to enameling." To this day, no one has been able to duplicate the Blaschka's fine artistry.
Botanist Donald Schnell gives testimony to the astonishing accuracy of the models. He writes of a plant, Pinguicula
, the details of whose pollination
were unknown. By painstaking analysis of its structures, he worked out the probable mechanism of pollination. On visiting the glass flowers exhibit for the first time in 1997, he was enjoying the "enchanting and very accurate" models, when he was astonished to see a panel showing Pinguicula and a pollinating bee: "one sculpture showed a bee entering the flower and a second showed the bee exiting, lifting the stigma apron as it did so," precisely as Schnell had hypothesized. "As far as I know Professor Goodale never published this information, nor did it seem to have been published by anyone back then, but the process was faithfully executed."
In the Journal of American Conservation, authors Whitehouse and Small state 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."
. In a 1999 article about the collection in the journal ResearchPennState curatorial associate Susan Rossi-Wilcox is quoted as saying "It took a long time for the faculty here to go from thinking about the Glass Flowers as a teaching collection to thinking about them as art objects." Rossi-Wilcox went on "See the white powdery stuff on the leaves? This is glass corrosion
. The majority of these models are affected. That's the great irony. The models showing plant diseases are also showing glass diseases." Others have acquired breaks or hairline cracks due to vibrations in the building. In 2000 Harvard began a restoration program, estimated to take at least six years. A Boston Globe story described the elaborate measures taken and the painstaking effort required merely to move some of the flowers one flight of stairs upward to a conservation area.
The Glass Flowers are one of the most famous attractions of the Boston area. More than 175,000 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 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."
A visitor returning to Back Bay in 1951 after a ten-year absence wrote "I was told the two sights above all others that visiting salesmen from the country wish to see when in Boston are the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
in Harvard Square
and the Mapparium
at the Christian Science Church building."
Marianne Moore
wrote in a poem, "Silence,"
According to Rossi-Wilcox, the question people most often ask after seeing them is, "'Where are the glass flowers?' Because nobody can believe these are made of glass.".
has some on displayhttp://www.warmus.us/Blaschkas%20Sea%20Creatures-Warmus.htmhttp://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/blaschka/intro_page.htm; however, most are stored for safekeeping at the Corning Museum of Glass
in Corning, New Yorkhttp://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/blaschka/more_info/.
Other locations exhibiting the Blaschka invertebrates include the Boston Museum of Science, the Harvard Museum of Natural History
, the National Museum of Ireland, and the Redpath Museum
of McGill University
.
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
botanical models
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Harvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.It has three parts:* the Harvard University Herbaria* the Museum of Comparative Zoology* the Harvard Mineralogical Museum....
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf Blaschka were German glass artists, known for the production of biological models such as the Glass Flowers.-Early life of Leopold:...
from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, near Dresden. They were commissioned by Professor George Lincoln Goodale
George Lincoln Goodale
George Lincoln Goodale was an American botanist, born at Saco, Maine. He graduated at Amherst College in 1860 and at Harvard Medical School in 1863, after which he practiced at Portland, Me., until 1867; became professor of natural science and applied chemistry at Bowdoin; and at Harvard was...
, founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum, for the purpose of teaching botany, and financed by Goodale's former student, Mary Lee Ware and her mother, Elizabeth Ware. Over 3000 models, of 847 different plant species, were made.
The models
Botanist Donald Schnell gives testimony to the astonishing accuracy of the models. He writes of a plant, Pinguicula
Pinguicula
The butterworts are a group of carnivorous plants comprising the genus Pinguicula. Members of this genus use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition they obtain from the environments. Of the roughly 80 currently known species, 12...
, the details of whose pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
were unknown. By painstaking analysis of its structures, he worked out the probable mechanism of pollination. On visiting the glass flowers exhibit for the first time in 1997, he was enjoying the "enchanting and very accurate" models, when he was astonished to see a panel showing Pinguicula and a pollinating bee: "one sculpture showed a bee entering the flower and a second showed the bee exiting, lifting the stigma apron as it did so," precisely as Schnell had hypothesized. "As far as I know Professor Goodale never published this information, nor did it seem to have been published by anyone back then, but the process was faithfully executed."
In the Journal of American Conservation, authors Whitehouse and Small state 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."
Restoration
The flowers have suffered deterioration and are undergoing restorationArt conservation and restoration
Conservation-restoration, also referred to as conservation, is a profession devoted to the preservation of cultural heritage for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care...
. In a 1999 article about the collection in the journal ResearchPennState curatorial associate Susan Rossi-Wilcox is quoted as saying "It took a long time for the faculty here to go from thinking about the Glass Flowers as a teaching collection to thinking about them as art objects." Rossi-Wilcox went on "See the white powdery stuff on the leaves? This is glass corrosion
Glass disease
Glass disease, also known as sick glass, is a degradation process encountered in art conservation.Glass disease is caused by an inherent fault in the chemical composition of the original glass formula. Usually, inadequate calcium oxide causes the alkalis in the glass to remain water soluble at a...
. The majority of these models are affected. That's the great irony. The models showing plant diseases are also showing glass diseases." Others have acquired breaks or hairline cracks due to vibrations in the building. In 2000 Harvard began a restoration program, estimated to take at least six years. A Boston Globe story described the elaborate measures taken and the painstaking effort required merely to move some of the flowers one flight of stairs upward to a conservation area.
Public response
A visitor returning to Back Bay in 1951 after a ten-year absence wrote "I was told the two sights above all others that visiting salesmen from the country wish to see when in Boston are the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Harvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.It has three parts:* the Harvard University Herbaria* the Museum of Comparative Zoology* the Harvard Mineralogical Museum....
in Harvard Square
Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a large triangular area in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street. It is the historic center of Cambridge...
and the Mapparium
Mapparium
The Mapparium is a three-story tall glass globe of stained glass that is viewed from a bridge through its interior. It is a unique exhibit at the Christian Science Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts....
at the Christian Science Church building."
Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore was an American Modernist poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.- Life :Moore was born in Kirkwood, Missouri, in the manse of the Presbyterian church where her maternal grandfather, John Riddle Warner, served as pastor. She was the daughter of mechanical engineer and inventor...
wrote in a poem, "Silence,"
- My father used to say,
- "Superior people never make long visits,
- have to be shown Longfellow's grave,
- or the glass flowers at Harvard."
According to Rossi-Wilcox, the question people most often ask after seeing them is, "'Where are the glass flowers?' Because nobody can believe these are made of glass.".
Glass Invertebrates
The Blaschkas also made glass models of invertebrates. Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
has some on displayhttp://www.warmus.us/Blaschkas%20Sea%20Creatures-Warmus.htmhttp://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/blaschka/intro_page.htm; however, most are stored for safekeeping at the Corning Museum of Glass
Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, explores every facet of glass, including art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design....
in Corning, New Yorkhttp://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/blaschka/more_info/.
Other locations exhibiting the Blaschka invertebrates include the Boston Museum of Science, the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Harvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.It has three parts:* the Harvard University Herbaria* the Museum of Comparative Zoology* the Harvard Mineralogical Museum....
, the National Museum of Ireland, and the Redpath Museum
Redpath Museum
The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University and located on the university's campus at 859 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath. It houses collections of interest to ethnology,...
of McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
.
See also
- Artificial flowers
- GlassblowingGlassblowingGlassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...
- Glass museums and galleries
- LampworkingLampworkingLampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored 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 modern practice no longer...
External links
- The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants Harvard website
- Invertebrate Models at Cornell University
- "Glass Flowers bloom again at HMNH", Harvard University Gazette
- "'Glass Flowers' gallery to close for renovations", Harvard University Gazette
- "Care for Glass Flowers branches out: Natural History Museum's fragile flowers get needed cleaning and repair", Harvard University Gazette
- "These creatures see dusty duty: Obscure cousins of the Glass Flowers depict denizens of the deep", Harvard University Gazette
- "Eclipsed for decades, Harvard's glass animals step out", Harvard University Gazette
- Corning Museum of Glass