A Tale of Two Glassworkers and Their Marine Marvels

by Julie Leibach
May 16, 2016
1 min read

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka are perhaps best known for crafting a collection of glass flowers for Harvard. But together they made their mark fashioning thousands of marine invertebrate models.

This octopus may evoke the spirit of life, but it never swam the ocean depths. It’s made of glass.The specimen is one of thousands of meticulously detailed marine invertebrate models fashioned between 1863 and 1890 by a father-son glassworking duo, for the primary purpose of research and education. Collectively, their work depicts more than 700 different species—including various anemones, squids, and sea stars—found in waters around the globe.The models’ destinations were also far-flung. From their glassworking studio in Dresden, Germany, Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolf, shipped their fragile pieces to museums and academic institutions in locales as diverse as Australia, India, Japan, and the United States (where Cornell University now holds what’s likely the world’s largest collection, at more than 570 pieces).