Preserved in Glass
By Kirsti Scott
Long before underwater photography, before modern specimen collection and storage, and for items that couldn’t be preserved using taxidermy, a father-and-son duo created scientifically accurate models of animals and plants from glass. I had the chance to visit Mystic Seaport Museum in 2024, who presented an exhibition called “Spineless” with over 40 of these exquisite creations.
The show highlighted the history of 19th-century science and the study and tracking of marine introduced species in the wake of globalization. Many of the animals in the exhibit represent species now found in New England waterways, introduced through Mystic’s centuries-long history of vessels visiting the port from around the world.
Glassmakers Leopold Blaschka (1822–1895) and his son Rudolf (1857–1939) lived and worked in Dresden, Germany. They created glass sculptures using lampworking — where open flames are used during the process to create the delicate shapes in their pieces— and painted the works with final details. They created over 700 marine invertebrate designs and sold them to scientists, researchers, and museums.
The glasswork of the Blaschkas beautifully captured the forms, anatomical details, and colors of these magnificent sea creatures. Through a mail-order business, they successfully sold and distributed these often extraordinarily fragile pieces to museums and universities around the world for teaching and display purposes. They also produced glass botanical pieces, including over 4,000 glass flowers for Harvard University.
Leopold and Rudolf worked mostly from zoological illustrations, sketches from casual observers, and scientific journals. When Leopold traveled by ship to the U.S. in the 1850s, he had the chance to observe live jellyfish. By the 1870s, Leopold and Rudolf had a saltwater aquarium with live specimens collected and shipped from around Europe. Their work was sought after due to its incredible detail and craftsmanship, along with its scientific accuracy. To call their pieces scientific models does not do them justice—they are miniature works of art.
“‘Spineless’ provides a rare opportunity to see the world-famous Blaschka models in a new context, interpreted through the lens of maritime and marine science histories and connecting the past with the present,” said Christina Connett Brophy, Senior Director of Museum Galleries and Senior Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at Mystic Seaport Museum. “Using the Museum’s own collections as well as some exquisite loans from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and others, the Blaschka models come alive with themes that relate to other exhibitions and programs throughout the campus and our unique site along the Mystic River.”
In “Spineless,” selected models were accompanied by sailors’ journals and rare books containing sketches, watercolors, written descriptions, and photographs, giving a glimpse into early documentation and scientific work at sea. When creating the models, the Blaschkas relied on their relationships with scientists, along with observations of live specimens held in aquariums, wet specimens, books, and scientific journals.
Wet specimens, preserved in jars, were part of the “Spineless” exhibition. The lumpy, lifeless creatures preserved in fluids highlight the challenges that the Blaschkas and scientists faced in preserving and documenting invertebrates for study. The lifelike sculptures in glass capture not only the colors and shapes of the living creatures, but the vibrancy and movement when they were swimming in the world’s oceans or living in coastal tide pools.
So, how accurate were the glass models made by the Blaschkas? A Sea Angel (Gymnosomata) created in glass captures the delicate transparency and subtle coloring of the animal as found in nature. A Blue Dragon (Glaucus atlanticus) created by the Blaschkas looks just like the real thing. The pieces created by the Blaschkas in glass were so superior to those created by contemporaries from papier mâché and wax that they essentially cornered the market for scientific marine and botanical models.
A special presentation within “Spineless” turned an eye towards some of the invertebrates’ modern-day environmental impact as introduced species. Since the models’ creation in the late 19th century, some of the species they represent have been introduced around the world, traveling on the hulls of ships and in ballast water. Those models are singled out and contextualized through the work of co-curator Dr. James T. Carlton, one of the world’s leading experts in marine bioinvasions. In Carlton’s own words, “The Blaschka glass models elegantly illustrate the absence of any boundaries between art and the science of the sea, including our modern-day environmental concerns for ocean conservation.”
This article appeared in Beachcombing Magazine Volume 43 July/August 2024.
All photos courtesy of Mystic Seaport Museum.
