Glass Flowers

Created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, near Dresden, Germany, the collection was commissioned by George Lincoln Goodale, the first director of Harvard's Botanical Museum, and was financed by Mary Lee Ware and her mother Elizabeth C.

[4][5] Leopold was hesitant but eventually agreed to make some sample models which, though badly damaged in customs,[6] convinced Goodale of their value in botanical teaching.

[4] The models are glass with wire supports (internal or external), glue, a variety of organic media,[further explanation needed] and paint or enamel coloring.

The Blaschkas' primary technique was lampworking, 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.

"[17][18] At least two poems feature the flowers: Mark Doty (winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008), "The Ware Collection of Glass Flowers and Fruit, Harvard Museum", in My Alexandria, 1993,[19] He's built a perfection out of hunger, fused layer upon layer, swirled until what can't be tasted, won't yield, almost satisfies, an art mouthed to the shape of how soft things are, how good, before they disappear.

Marianne Moore 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."