Glass Menagerie, 1863–1936

In the late 19th century, the rise of natural history museums and their increasing popularity as a means to acquaint the public with the scientific world introduced a pressing new problem. Preserving once-living things was a challenge, and the resulting specimens were poor representations of the vivid, beautiful flora and fauna they had been in life. Flowers pressed flat grew dull, and invertebrates floating in alcohol faded and lost their defining features, becoming muted and blobby.
As an alternative, many museums and universities commissioned or purchased collections of Blaschka models: exquisitely crafted, scientifically accurate glass sculptures of plants and sea creatures used for both display and scientific study that were made by father-and-son duo Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, who hailed from a long line of glassworkers.

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