Glass sea creatures
In 1853, shortly after the death of his father and wife Caroline, the latter to a cholera epidemic, Leopold Blaschka – grief stricken and in need of a vacation – traveled to the United States.
[8] During this period of forced idleness, Leopold studied and sketched the local marine invertebrate population, intrigued by the transparency of their bodies similar to the glass his family had long worked.
"[8] This sense of wonder would fuel his later work but, in the meantime and upon his return to Dresden, Leopold focused on his family business which was the production the glass eyes, costume ornaments, lab equipment, and other such fancy goods and specialty items that only a master Lampworker could accomplish;[10] plus the task of furthering the training of his son and apprentice (and eventual successor), Rudolf Blaschka.
Aristocratic attention, as it turned out, specifically the eyes of Prince Camille de Rohan who, being something of a naturalist himself, commissioned the Blaschkas to craft 100 glass orchids for his private collection.
Land-based flora and fauna was not an issue, for it was a relatively simple matter to exhibit mounted and stuffed creatures such as gorillas and elephants, their lifelike poses attracting and exciting the museum's visitors.
Neither pretty nor a terribly effective teaching tool, Prof. Reichenbach wanted something more, specifically 3D colored models of marine invertebrates that were both lifelike and able to stand the test of time.
The key fact, though, was that these glass marine models were, as would soon be acknowledged, "perfectly true to nature,"[18] and as such represented an extraordinary opportunity both for the scientific community and the Blaschkas themselves.
"[20] In short, for the first time since Darwin, there was great universal interest in the natural world, and it became a sign of culture, of worldliness and sophistication, to exhibit examples of life in one's drawing rooms and parlors.
[2][22][23] Indeed, "the world had never seen anything quite like the beautiful, scientifically accurate Blaschka models"[24] and yet they were available via so common a means as mail-order per one's local card catalog; for example, Ward's Natural Science would sell a small glass octopus for approximately $2.50.
Paradoxically and in historically circular twist, the reason that the glass sea creatures sold to Harvard were to prove so crucial was because the University would soon, and did, open its new Botanical Museum in 1888.
Given in effect a series of empty rooms and invited to make a museum for teaching botany, the first director, George Lincoln Goodale, faced a familiar problem.
[10] In fact, Goodale's problem was essentially the same as Reichenbach's had been, but applied to botany rather than marine biology for, in both cases, the practiced method of exhibition robbed the specimens of color and three-dimensional form.
Moreover and also like Prof. Reichenbach, Prof. Goodale first learned of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschkas' skill per an exhibition – that being the glass marine invertebrates belonging to the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Thus, in yet another direct historical parallel, in 1886 the Blaschkas were approached by Goodale for the sole purpose of finding them, with a request to make a series of glass botanical models for Harvard.
Thus, with the generous sponsorship of Elizabeth C. Ware and her daughter Mary, the initial contract was signed and dictated that the Blaschkas need only work half-time on the models, thus allowing them to continue their production of the Glass sea creatures.
However, in 1890, they and Goodale – acting on behalf of the Wares – signed an updated version that allowed Leopold and Rudolf to work on them (the Glass Flowers) full-time;[29][30][31] though some sources describe the agreement as a shift from a 3-year contract to a 10-year one.
Displayed (at least in part) in an exhibition named Fragile Legacy, "researchers at Cornell are using the collection as a time capsule for seeking out and documenting the creatures still living in our oceans today."
Even those specimens purchased by Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) suffered a degree of neglect; they were not forgotten, but they were scattered much as the quote above describes, across several departments, and it was believed that the University only possessed 60-70 models (rather than the actual 430).
[21] For a several month period beginning in 2015 and ending in the early summer of 2016, the HMNH set up a "temporary display highlighting twenty-seven of the most popular plant models as well as some items from the Blaschka archives"[37] while the main Glass Flowers exhibit was under renovation.
[20] A number of glass models, including shells and sea slugs were displayed in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and were among the 2,947 series purchased by the museum from Ward's Natural Science Establishment.
"[52] Many of the Glass sea creatures are yet to be located; Leopold's record books tell where many of the shipments went,[53] yet the condition and current whereabouts of the majority of these collections remains unknown.
