Director of the natural history museum in Dresden, Professor Reichenbach was faced with an annoying yet seemingly unsolvable problem of showing invertebrate marine life. Land-based flora and fauna were not an issue, exhibiting mounted and stuffed creatures such as gorillas and elephants was a relatively simple matter, with their lifelike poses attracting and exciting the museums' visitors. Invertebrates, however, by their very nature, posed a problem. In the 19th century, the only method practised for showcasing them was to take a live specimen and place it in a sealed jar of alcohol. This killed it, but more importantly, time and a lack of hard parts eventually rendered the specimen little more than a colorless floating blob of jelly, making it neither pretty nor an effective teaching tool. Prof. Reichenbach wanted something more, specifically three-dimensional, colored models of marine invertebrates that were both lifelike and able to endure. In 1863, he "saw an exhibition of highly detailed, realistic glass flowers created by a Bohemian
lampworker, Leopold Blaschka, at an exhibition hosted by Prince Camille de
Rohan;" and the Prince was who first introduced Reichenbach to Leopold Blaschka. Enchanted by the botanical models and positive that Leopold held the key to ending his own showcasing issue, in 1863 Reichenbach convinced and commissioned Leopold to produce 12 model
sea anemones. were exactly what Prof. Reichenbach needed and, 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. 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. This advice later proved wise and fateful both economically and scientifically, for Leopold did as the Dresden natural history museum director suggested, a decision which swiftly sparked the Blaschkas' highly lucrative mail-order business of selling glass sea creatures to interested parties across the globe. Poetically, though Reichenbach did not know it, many years later, his showcasing problem and manner of finding the Blaschkas would be repeated by
Harvard Professor
George Lincoln Goodale - Goodale getting the idea for the creation of the Glass Flowers from Harvard's own collection of Glass sea creatures. Sadly, however, the original six glass sea anemones purchased by Ludwig Reichenbach in 1863, as well as the rest of that first collection, were destroyed in the
bombing of Dresden in World War II. ==Later career==