The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-09
FLOWERS MADE OF GLASS
THE REMARKABLE CREATIONS OF
TWO DRESDEN ARTISTS.
secret Process which Has Enriched
Harvard's Botanical Museum
wonderful Accuracy.

sightseer at Harvard Is sure, sooner or
later, after making the rounds of the
..yard" and Memorial Hall. the gymnasium
and the library, TO ask at last where ne can
see the glass howers;' and. finding them,
TO linger over the cases in the university
museum which contain them with more
interest. often, than he has shown for any
thing else that he has seen in Cambridge.
The collection. apparently. is known from
one end of the country to the other, better
known. perhaps. than any scientific collec-
zion. whether OF flowers or Of other OBJ
5ects. in the United States. 1t appeals to
the common human love Of flowers for its
beauty as well as to the professional bot
anIst for its accurate reproduction of all
the delicacies and intricacies of flower for
nation. and TO everybody for the marvellous
ingenuity and patience that have gone to
the making Of the hundreds Of specimens
which it now comprises.
The Ware collection OF Blaschka glass
models OF flowers. it is called, made by a
secret process by Leopold Blaschka and his
son Rudolph in Germany, and secured TO
the university by the generosity of Mrs.
Elizabeth c. Ware and Miss Mary L. Ware,
of Boston. who have established it as a
49, - 80 49, - ma - -" -
OF the Harvard class of 1894. The elder
Blaschka died in 1895. leaving his son TO
continue the work alone. While the two
were working together the number of
models received at Harvard in a year some
times amounted to over 100. including the
branch with its flower. and certain special
details on a magniied scale; but for the
last two or three years the average num-
Der Of models received mas been in the
neighborhood of twenty or twenty-five. The
total number OF plants now shown i'm the
case at the museum is 57s. besides 2.424 IL
Illustrative details.
The idea of such a collection originated
with DR.. George J.. Goodale, who is at the
head OF the botanical museum and the di-
rector also Of the Harvard botanic gar
den For some years the Blaschkas, then
established in Dresden, had been making
for museums all over the world models in
glass OF such animals, particularly the
marine OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and the like
as could hardly be represented in collec-
tions unless copied in some such durable
substance. Some of these models had been
procured by Harvard and may still be seen
in the Museum OF Comparative Zoology.
Looking at these suggested TO DR.. Goodale
that the same process might be used to
make models from the living plant which
should be permanent and free from decay
and in which the color and bloom of the
original. Impossible to preserve in pressed
or alcoholic specimens of plants, should be
combined with complete scientific accuracy.
DID NOT RESPOND.
Accordingly in 1856 Or. Goodale Visited the
BIaschkas in Dresden and laid his plan
before them. Leopold BIaschka, however,
had the German infexibility of mind which
IS so often referred 70 as obstinacy, and
his first answer was a downright refusal.
But DR.. Goodale had seen in the house a
wreath OF flowers in glass which the
Blaschkas had made twenty years before
for the funeraf~of a relative, and he was
not to be shaken in his purpose. Tact,
persistence and the offer of terms which
doubtless seemed princely to the plain
living German artists finally prevailed. The
Blaschkas made their first shipment to DR..
Goodale in the year following. and in 1890
a ten years contract in which they agreed
70 give their time exclusively to the botani-
cal museum, abandoning their previous
geological work. was entered into. This
year the contract has been renewed for an
Indefinite period. and Rudolph Blasehka's
name is now regularly carried on the col
lege lists as 'artist-naturalist to the
botanical department.
With the first money received from the
university the Blaschkas bought a COM
Portable house in Hosterwitz, a town about
ten miles from Dresden. Not far away are
the royal botanic garden and greenhouses
at Pillnitz. which. with the botanical gar
dens in Dresden itself. furnish such living
material as is required to make the models.
The process which the Blaschkas have used
Is, as has been said, a secret one. heredi-
tary in the family. and Rudolph Blaschka.
as the last Of his line, has said that it
should die with him. Whether this will be
the case or not, the Laboratories in the Hos
terwitz house have been visited by only
two persons besides the Blaschkas-Dr.
Goodale and. not long ago. Miss Ware.
The first models made were. in compari-
son with those being turned out to-day,
a little crude-though doubtless if they had
remained the only ones in existence their
imperfections would hardly have been
noticed. so great was the skill shown in
the minutest details from the very begin
ming. But the work has steadily i'm
proved in quality. in exactness and In
beauty with every succeeding year. The
FIRST point TO strike the attention, per-
haps. is that the models do not look like
glass atssaH. "A blade of grass has the
translUcency not of glass but of the orig
NAL growing in the fields. The surface of
the leaf of a water plant is nothing like
the surface of a piece of glass, but has
the waxy effect of the real leaf. The very
hairs or tiny excrescences which grow on
the stems of certain plants are reproduced
With an accuracy which one would have
thought beyond human skill TO obtain.
This wonderful accuracy is well brought
~ a report made from a strictly scientific
point OF view. several years ago. by a con-
tributor 10 the Botanical Gazette. Speaking
Of the model of the thOrny araIia, the
writer said:
"The building up of the complex innor-
essence, with its multitudinous flowers, is
almost past belief. In this cluster, with its
flowers 50 small that their structure can be
seen only with a lens, while many of its
buds are SO minute as to be indistinguish-
able 20 the naked eye. | counted OF buds.
blossoms and developing fruit from $500 TO
5000. And yet every flower has its five
petals. and five alternating stamens with