On a 30-degree December day in Boston, I walked between rows of flowers. Pale pink orchids, buttery poppies, and purple columbine thrived despite the temperature. Not only that, but banana trees also bore fruit and cacao pods were plump with beans.
How is this possible? It turns out these plants belong to the incredibly lifelike collection of Glass Flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It’s one of the university’s greatest treasures but not widely known by visitors to Cambridge. The collection comprises over 4,300 glass models of 780 different plant species. All the flowers and plants on display are made of glass, even if my eyes told me otherwise.
From the Hands of Czech Glassmakers to Harvard
The official name for the glass collection at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History is The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants. The display was commissioned by Harvard Professor George Lincoln Goodale, founder of the university’s Botanical Museum. Goodale wanted better plant models for teaching than the coarse wax and paper models available at the time. The collection includes enlarged replicas of anatomical plant parts and tropical plants, useful for teaching.
The glass flowers were crafted over a roughly 50-year period (1887-1936) by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, father and son Czech glass artisans living and working near Dresden, Germany. The father and son team were famous for making glass plant and marine invertebrate models for museums around the world. Goodale’s request was so extensive that the Blaschkas stopped their other projects and dedicated their careers to producing the Glass Flowers that now reside at Harvard.
Creating Flowers from Glass
Some of the flowers were made by lampworking, a technique that softens and shapes heated glass; others were blown. Color was created by using pigmented glass, or by brushing on a thin layer of colored ground glass or metal oxide and heating it to fuse the color to the plant.
There’s a sign above one of the displays quoting Goodale. It reads, “Although you may see him (Leopold Blaschka) touch a flat piece of glass with his little metallic tools, you know that it is no ordinary touch which suddenly shapes it into a living being.”
What a thrill it must have been for Goodale to watch the flowers spring to life under the Czech glassmaker’s skilled hands.
The Finest Details
The Blaschkas crafted the glass flowers with innovative techniques to create the most lifelike replicas possible. They often traveled to exotic places to observe live specimens. Leaning over the display cases, I found it hard to believe that every detail, from the prickly plant stems to furry leaves, was made from glass.
Each flower transported me to a different place. As I examined the purple columbine, I was no longer in a brick building in Cambridge but on an alpine hillside in Wyoming. The orchid display took me to lush tropical gardens in Mexico. The pitcher plant, one of the largest and most ambitious pieces, could easily have been hanging on my patio in Florida. The collection was designed for academic purposes, but I found the artistic nature of the creations evocative and transcendent. I was dizzy with the magic of it all and didn’t want to leave.
Crossing the Atlantic
In the late 19th century, there was no such thing as international express air freight. How is it possible that these fragile specimens survived weeks on an ocean steamer? I think about how my Amazon packages look sometimes when they arrive at my doorstep, and it’s not pretty.
Each specimen was reinforced with internal glass wires to make them stronger, although they are still incredibly fragile. For shipping, individual crates were built with two layers. One layer acts as a shock absorber and the other layer holds the glass flower, carefully secured by wire.
A Bouquet for the Benefactor
Goodale secured funding for his botanical collection from a former student and prominent Bostonian Mary Ware and her mother Elizabeth Ware. Both plant lovers themselves, the two benefactors became intimately involved in the project. They visited the Blaschkas in Dresden numerous times, and became friends with Rudolf and his wife Frieda.
As a thank you to the Wares for their generosity, Rudolf made a delicate flower bouquet wrapped in green ribbon. Filled with blue cornflowers and sprigs of white and pink, this incredibly realistic replica is one of my favorite pieces in the Glass Flowers exhibit. Unlike real flowers that fade over time, the glass specimens remain vibrant and look freshly picked.
Spending the Day at Harvard
If you go
You can visit the Glass Flower Collection at The Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is open 9am to 5pm daily.
Visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu for more information.
Kirsten Harrington blogs at www.kirstenharrington.com
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