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. En route the ship was becalmed and lay still upon the sea for two weeks. 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. Leopold felt a sense of quiet, inspirational, wonder at these luminescent ocean dwellers, a sense which he recorded and translated by Henri Reiling: "It is a beautiful night in May. Hopeful, we look out over the darkness of the sea, which is as smooth as a mirror; there emerges all around in various places a flashlike bundle of light beams, as if it is surrounded by thousands of sparks, that form true bundles of fire and of other bright lighting spots, and the seemingly mirrored stars. There emerges close before us a small spot in a sharp greenish light, which becomes ever larger and larger and finally becomes a bright shining sunlike figure." plus the task of furthering the training of his son and apprentice (and eventual successor), Rudolf Blaschka. However, like anyone, he did have free time, and his hobby was to make glass models of plants – as opposed to invertebrates. This would, many years later, become a base for the fabled Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (otherwise known as the Glass Flowers), but, for the moment, such artistry was naught but an amusing and profitless pastime done between his various commissions. Naturally the Prince was more than a little impressed by the mastery Leopold's work, and "between 1860 and 1862, the prince exhibited about 100 models of orchids and other exotic plants, which he displayed on two artificial tree trunks in his palace in Prague", ==Reichenbach's request==

Director of the natural history museum in Dresden, Prof. Reichenbach was faced with an annoying yet seemingly unsolvable problem in regards to showing marine life. 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. Invertebrates, however, by their very nature, posed a problem. In the 19th century the only practiced method of showcasing them was to take a live specimen and place it in a sealed jar of alcohol. This of course killed it but, more importantly, time and their lack of hard parts eventually rendered them into little more than colorless floating blobs of jelly. 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. These marine models, hailed as "an artistic marvel in the field of science and a scientific marvel in the field of art", were a great improvement on previous methods of presenting such creatures: drawings, pressing, photographs and papier-mâché or wax models. and exactly what Prof. Reichenbach needed. Moreover they, at last, provided an outlet for the wonder Leopold had felt all those years ago when observing the phosphorescent ocean life. The key fact, though, was that these glass marine models were, as would soon be acknowledged, "perfectly true to nature", and as such represented an extraordinary opportunity both for the scientific community and the Blaschkas themselves (to create sea anemone images faithful to nature, images from P.H. Gosse's Actinologia Britannica, 1860, were utilised). Knowing this and thrilled with his newly acquired set of glass sea creatures, Reichenbach advised Leopold to drop his current and generations long family business of glass fancy goods and the like in favor of selling glass marine invertebrates to museums, aquaria, universities, and private collectors. Advice which would prove wise and fateful both economically and scientifically, for Leopold did as the Dresden natural history museum director suggested. ==A successful business==

Unlike the eventual Glass Flower, a private commission to a single University's museum, the Blaschka glass sea creatures were a global enterprise; and not just for museums and other such educational institutes, for "as popular interest in the history and sciences of the natural world burgeoned during the latter half of the 19th century, the sea became particularly alluring. The spread of home aquariums and the advent of deep-sea diving revealed a new frontier, filled with wondrous and unusual creatures." 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. Hence private individuals were after these extraordinary models as well, and the Blaschkas, knowing this and knowing that Reichenbach was correct in that many museums would want them, made a mail-order business out of it. This business was hugely successful and they ended up making and selling 10,000 glass invertebrates dispersed in a diaspora of shipments all across the globe. Indeed, "the world had never seen anything quite like the beautiful, scientifically accurate Blaschka models" 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. This set was not the largest ever sold and the models were no different from any of the others made by the Blaschkas, but their effect was to be greater than all the rest combined. ==From invertebrates to flowers==

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. Hence they were hardly the ideal teaching tools. the fragments convinced Goodale that Blaschka glass art was a more than worthy educational investment. 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; though some sources describe the agreement as a shift from a 3-year contract to a 10-year one. Regardless, the production and time of the Glass sea creatures was over, their fame as well as the attention of their makers shifting to the Glass Flowers – a project that, fifty years later, ended with the death of Rudolf Blaschka (Leopold having died thirty-nine years earlier). ==The models today==

Today, over a century after their making, the glass sea creatures live in the shadow of their younger botanical cousins, so much so that many of those well aware of the Glass Flowers have never even heard of them. The fact is that, "gradually, these glass animals began to disappear, their habitats shifting into dusty closets and museum storage. People began to forget that these incredible glass creations had existed in the first place." as well as view subsequent works inspired by the Blaschkas. The exhibit was open through January 8, 2017. The Corning Museum of Glass produced a film entitled Fragile Legacy exploring the related topics of the Glass sea creatures and the living ones they represent. Harvard 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). (Brill later co-authored a book about the Glass sea creatures.) Today they form the Harvard Museum of Natural History Sea Creatures in Glass display which, when combined with the Glass Flowers, form the largest Blaschka collection on display in the world. while the main Glass Flowers exhibit was under renovation. This exhibit was unique because it was the first recorded time that the Glass Flowers have been jointly exhibited with the Glass sea creatures in a major and equal display. "some of which are on exhibit at Corson Mudd Hall and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, making Cornell one of the few universities in the world where students and the public can view these wondrous creations." However and like so many of their counterpart collections, they were neglected after a time and, in this case, remained forgotten under dust and grit until the latter half of the 20th century. National Museum of Ireland The Natural History Museum branch of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin was among the Blaschkas' "earliest customers and initially commissioned 85 glass models, paying the then significant sum of £15. It went on to purchase 530 models from the Blaschkas" – making it the largest collection of Blaschka Invertebrate Models in Europe Since then, the Dead Zoo, as Ireland's Natural History Museum is sometimes called, "has undertaken research on the conservation of these delicate objects." Noteworthy in that, like Corning, they have forever taken excellent care of the Sea Creatures, the National Museum of Ireland is another center of learning regarding the Blaschkas; a fact proven in that, in 2006, they hosted (alongside University College Dublin) the Dublin Blaschka Congress, "conceived as a gathering to bring together the diverse scholarly disciplines that are uniquely, if eccentrically, joined in the study of scientific glass models." Crucially and naturally, the Congress dealt with the Glass Flowers no less than their older maritime cousins. University of Wisconsin–Madison In 2007 the University of Wisconsin–Madison Zoological Museum accidentally uncovered their hitherto forgotten 50-model collection in a "series of keyholes under the exhibit cases along a first-floor corridor Many are on display in the What is an Animal? permanent exhibit. Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum, London holds 182 of the models. Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, England There is a large display of marine invertebrates and also two models of single cell animals living in fresh water. Museum of Science (Boston) The Museum of Science (MoS) has a small display of marine invertebrates towards the end of their Natural Mysteries exhibit. D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum The D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University of Dundee in Scotland showcases the Blaschka models of marine invertebrates which its founder, Scottish biologist and mathematician D'Arcy Thompson acquired in 1888 to use as teaching aids. In his 1917 book On Growth and Form, Thompson compares the forms of various marine invertebrates to the shapes made by glass-blowers, suggesting a link to these models. University of Vienna The University of Vienna has a collection of 145 glass marine invertebrates, "the second largest collection of Blaschka models in the German-speaking part of Europe after the Kremsmünster Abbey. The collection was used in teaching until the 1930s and was rediscovered only in the 1980s." In 2016 the collection was loaned to and put on display at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa The Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa hosts one of the few glass marine invertebrates model in Italy. "Consisting of 51 marine invertebrates reproduction created for didactical purposes and probably belonging to the first phase of Blaschka's production (1822 – 1895)." ==Lost works==

Many of the Glass sea creatures are yet to be located; Leopold's record books tell where many of the shipments went, yet the condition and current whereabouts of the majority of these collections remains unknown. The original six glass sea anemones purchased by Reichenbach in 1863 as well as the rest of that first collection were destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in World War II. ==See also==