Harvard Museum of Natural History
An American treasure! No matter how many times you go to see the glass flowers, you’ll be floored. No visit to Boston/Cambridge should omit a trip to ogle them. They are botanically correct specimens created between 1886 and 1936 by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka at the behest of Professor George Lincoln Goodale, founder of Harvard’s Botanical Museum. He wanted life-like “specimens” in bloom year-round. The glass masters worked in Hosterwitz, Germany. The “flowers” were shaped after the glass was hot. Some models were blown. Most flowers have colored pigments. There are nearly 4,400 models. One of the most breathtaking is the little flowering cactus. Each needle is intact. Some of the glass is paper thin, which brings up questions: How do they clean them? How do they move them? You’ll have to go and find out. Fantastic!
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