The Glass Flowers, formally The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, is a famous collection of highly-realistic glass botanical models at the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A Blaschka glass model of part of a cashew tree at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka from 1887 through 1936 at their studio in Hosterwitz, Germany, near Dresden. They were commissioned by Professor George Lincoln Goodale, founder of Harvard's Botanical Museum, for the purpose of teaching botany, and financed by Goodale's former student, Mary Lee Ware and her mother, Elizabeth Ware. Over 3000 models, of 847 different plant species, were made.

For the only time in the Glass Flower Gallery's history, contemporary glass flowers by another artist have been shown between December 2011-March 2012. These ‘Ghost Orchids’^[1] are a sculptural representation by Scottish artist Siobhan Healy which depict the rarest wild orchid found in the UK.

The models[link]

In an article for the Journal of American Conservation, authors McNally and Buschini note that "the Glass Flowers are not made simply of glass. Many are painted (particularly models made in the years 1886–95) and varnished; some parts are glued together, and some of the models contain wire armatures within the glass stems. Coloring of the models ranges from paint to colored glass to enameling."^[2] To this day, no one has been able to duplicate the Blaschka's fine artistry.

Botanist Donald Schnell gives testimony to the astonishing accuracy of the models. He writes of a plant, Pinguicula, the details of whose pollination were unknown. By painstaking analysis of its structures, he worked out the probable mechanism of pollination. On visiting the glass flowers exhibit for the first time in 1997, he was enjoying the "enchanting and very accurate" models, when he was astonished to see a panel showing Pinguicula and a pollinating bee: "one sculpture showed a bee entering the flower and a second showed the bee exiting, lifting the stigma apron as it did so," precisely as Schnell had hypothesized. "As far as I know Professor Goodale never published this information, nor did it seem to have been published by anyone back then, but the process was faithfully executed."^[3]

In the Journal of American Conservation, authors Whitehouse and Small state that "the superiority in design and construction of the Blaschka models surpasses all modern model making to date and the skill and art of the Blaschkas rests in peace for eternity."^{[citation needed]}

Restoration[link]

The flowers have suffered deterioration and are undergoing restoration. In a 1999 article about the collection in the journal ResearchPennState curatorial associate Susan Rossi-Wilcox is quoted as saying "It took a long time for the faculty here to go from thinking about the Glass Flowers as a teaching collection to thinking about them as art objects." Rossi-Wilcox went on "See the white powdery stuff on the leaves? This is glass corrosion. The majority of these models are affected. That's the great irony. The models showing plant diseases are also showing glass diseases." ^[4] Others have acquired breaks or hairline cracks due to vibrations in the building. In 2000 Harvard began a restoration program, estimated to take at least six years. A Boston Globe story described the elaborate measures taken and the painstaking effort required merely to move some of the flowers one flight of stairs upward to a conservation area. ^[5]

Public response[link]

The Glass Flowers are one of the most famous attractions of the Boston area. More than 175,000 visitors view the collection annually. In 1936, when Harvard invited the public to tour the campus in honor of its tercentenary, a New York Times reporter taking the tour commented "Tercentenary or no, the chief focus of interest remains the famous glass flowers, the first of which was put on exhibition in 1893, and which with additions at intervals since, have never failed to draw exclamations of wonder or disbelief from visitors."^[6]

A visitor returning to Back Bay in 1951 after a ten-year absence wrote "I was told the two sights above all others that visiting salesmen from the country wish to see when in Boston are the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Harvard Square and the Mapparium at the Christian Science Church building."

Marianne Moore wrote in a poem, "Silence,"

<poem>My father used to say, "Superior people never make long visits, have to be shown Longfellow's grave, or the glass flowers at Harvard."</poem>

According to Rossi-Wilcox, the question people most often ask after seeing them is, "'Where are the glass flowers?' Because nobody can believe these are made of glass."^[4].

Glass Invertebrates[link]

The Blaschkas also made glass models of invertebrates. Cornell University has some on display[1][2]; however, most are stored for safekeeping at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York[3]. Other locations exhibiting the Blaschka invertebrates include the Boston Museum of Science, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of Ireland, and the Redpath Museum of McGill University.

See also[link]

• Artificial flowers
• Glassblowing
• Glass museums and galleries
• Lampworking

References[link]

1. ^ ‘Ghost Orchids’
2. ^ NcNally, Rika Smith and Nancy Buschini (1993). Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, Volume 32, Number 3, Article 2 (pp. 231 to 240)
3. ^ Schnell, Donald (2002). Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada. Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-540-3.
4. ^ ^{a b} Flowers Out of Glass, article by Nancy Marie Brown (1999), Research/Penn State, Vol. 20, no. 3.
5. ^ "Tender Blossoms: Harvard's Museum of Natural History Gets Ready to Restore Its Much Loved But Long-Suffering Collection of Glass Flowers.". The Boston Globe. November 11, 2000, p. F1. 
6. ^ "Back to Back Bay After an Absence of Ten Years". The New York Times. June 10, 1951, p. XX17. 

External links[link]

• The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants Harvard website
• Invertebrate Models at Cornell University
• "Glass Flowers bloom again at HMNH", Harvard University Gazette
• "'Glass Flowers' gallery to close for renovations", Harvard University Gazette
• "Care for Glass Flowers branches out: Natural History Museum's fragile flowers get needed cleaning and repair", Harvard University Gazette
• "These creatures see dusty duty: Obscure cousins of the Glass Flowers depict denizens of the deep", Harvard University Gazette
• "Eclipsed for decades, Harvard's glass animals step out", Harvard University Gazette
• Corning Museum of Glass

Girls Under Glass is a musical group from Hamburg, Germany.

Biography[link]

1986

Girls Under Glass were founded by Thomas Lücke (singer), Hauke Harms (electronics & keyboards) and Zaphor aka Volker Zacharias (guitars) as an offshoot of the gothic rock formation Calling Dead Red Roses.

1987

Debut album was recorded: Humus. For this record Dr. Fluch joined the band and played bass guitar.

1989

Girls Under Glass supported bands such as Fields of the Nephilim, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and were just big stars in the German gothic-wave-scene. At this point of time the band was playing together with two guest musicians (Marcel Zürcher, drummer of Abwärts, Schwansee, Shanghaid Guts) and Olaf von Ridder (bassplayer). Flowers (second album was recorded). Members: Thomas Lücke (vocals) Zaphor (guitars) Hauke Harms (keyboards), Axel Ermes (bassplayer). Axel joined the band and was integrated into the real band line-up. Axel and Zaphor played at this point of time parallel in the German cult band Cancer Barrack.

1990

Zaphor left Cancer Barrack and concentrated on the third GUG album. Main singer Thomas Lücke left the band and Zaphor took over the singers part. Rodney Orpheus of The Cassandra Complex produced the third GUG album called Positive and started a friendship with Zaphor. Zaphor joined The Cassandra Complex studio's live line-up, and worked together with Rodney for many years. 1990 was really a year of changes and re-starts.

1991

Project Pitchfork were playing their first gigs as support band for the Positive-tour.

1992

Darius the 4th album was recorded. This is the first CD recorded with a real drummer (Marcus Giltjes, ex Pink Turns Blue). As a new guitar player Girls Under Glass welcomed Raj Sen Gupta.

1993

Christus was recorded, also with Raj Sen Gupta plus Markus Giltjes. For the following tour Raj left the band and Girls Under Glass worked together with Robert Wilcocks of Sleeping Dogs Wake and Cobalt 60 for the next 3 years.

1995

Crystals & Stones was recorded as a trio again (Volker, Axel & Hauke) The band recorded this album in their new own studio. Die Krupps did a remix of "Die Zeit", which became a club hit in Germany. For this record the band was touring with Robert Wilcocks again. Additional drums on tour were played by Tippi Agogo (musician from Vancouver and close friend to The Legendary Pink Dots and Skinny Puppy musicians-scene).

1996

First shows in France and Spain.

1997

Firewalker was recorded. The hardest record GUG ever made. Totally inspired by the American industrial metal & electro music scene such as NIN, KMFDM, Stabbing Westward, Gravity Kills, etc. Girls asked ex-KMFDM drummer Rudi Naomi to join the band for the tour. GUG toured together with Deathline Int'l, a German-American-electro-act.

1998

Equilibrium was recorded. GUG calmed down a bit and found their way back to the more Gothic and Wave orientated style. Later issued in the United States by Van Richter Records.

1999

The seminal anthology record Nightmares for the United States was compiled. The record includes the biggest hits of GUG's career as well as out of print and new unreleased tracks including a cover of the classic track "Halloween" theme by John Carpenter. Released by Van Richter Records.

2001

Minddiver was recorded, the first album on their own label Aragon Records. It includes a cover version of Madonna's "Frozen". GUG made their first appearance in London (UK), co-headlining the famous GOTHAM – Festival with Clan Of Xymox European Tour together with Fair Sex. Frozen was later re-released as the title track on another album by Van Richter Records. In addition to the Madonna cover, this album also featured a Das Ich remix of Wings sung by Sandra Bammer (of Sister My Sister) entitled Frozen (Das Ich).

2002

European Tour had been recorded on 16 Tracks. Released on Aragon as first real live album Live in Light & Darkness.

2003

GUG paused for a bit more than 1 year. No gigs or studioworks.

2004

New material was written and recorded. Producer JP Genkel joined the production and recorded the album Zyklus in his IMPULS studio, Hamburg. Zyklus was released in February, 2005 on Metropolis Records.

2006

Focus released as a DVD . This is the first GUG DVD, Which was filmed during the 2005 Wave Gothic Treffen "WGT" in Leipzig, Germany after a chance meeting backstage between GUG and filmmaker/photographer Jeffrey Delannoy through their common friend Carsten Clatte (frontman of La Casa Del Cid and guitarist for Wolfsheim, and Goethes Erben.) Delannoy having seen the band a few times over the years was enthusiastic about producing the work in such an atmosphere as the WGT. GUG added to the production, creating a "20 Years Girls Under Glass" retrospective documentary film with interviews, reactions from other artists like Ronan Harris (VNV Nation), Peter Spilles (Project Pitchfork), Rodney Orpheus (Cassandra Complex)… backstage impressions, and other bonus materials.

Discography[link]

• Humus (1988)
• Ten Million Dollars (1989)
• Flowers (1989)
• Random (1990)
• Never Go (1990)
• Positive (1991)
• Live At Soundgarden (1991)
• Darius (1992)
• Christus (1993)
• Down in the Park (1994)
• Exitus (1995)
• Crystals & Stones (1995)
• Die Zeit (1995)
• Firewalker (1997)
• Nightmares (1999)
• Equilibrium (1999)
• Minddiver (2001)
• Frozen (2001)
• Erinnerung (2002)
• Light and Darkness (2003)
• Ohne Dich (2004)
• Zyklus (2005)
• Touch Me (2005)
• Focus (DVD) (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.girlsunderglass.de/
• http://www.metropolis-records.com/artists/?artist=GuG