“The Ware Collection

of Blaschka glass models of flowers at Harvard.

WALTER DEANE.

In the botanical museum of Harvard University is to be seen a collection which is absolutely unique in every way. It is the Blaschka Glass Flower Collection, presented by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Ware and Miss Mary L. Ware, in memory of Dr. Chas. E. Ware, of the class of 1834. These flowers are intended to illustrate the typical forms of phenogamic vegetation in America, and certain forms of the cryptogams will also be represented. The work is being done by the artists, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, father and son, living in Hosterwitz, Germany. It was through the untiring energy of Dr. Geo. L. Goodale that these artists were induced to abandon their work of making glass models of animals, chiefly marine invertebrates, which were sold to museums over the world, and devote themselves entirely to the construction of plants. They were, however, finally persuaded, on their own terms, to give their entire time to this work, and, by the last contract executed in Dresden in 1890, a certain number of models are to be sent to this country twice a year, for ten years. An American garden around their house supplies them with North American plants, while, from the royal garden of Pilnitz near by, they secure specimens of the vegetation of Central and South America. Leopold, the son, visited this country in 1892, and, in his travels to Jamaica and over our West, he prepared himself, by studies in color and collection of material, for the production of over 200 species…”

Reference Data:

Botanical Gazette, Vol. 19, by Coulter, Barnes, Coulter and Arthur, 1894, page 144