Have you ever taken out-of-town guests to see the glass flowers at Harvard? They are among the area’s must-see attractions.
The Czech father-son team Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka created the flowers in the 19th century, when they also made glass replicas of sea creatures.
Now scientists are comparing the duo’s marine life to what exists today. Have the creatures evolved? Are some extinct?
“I’ve been a marine biologist my entire professional life,” write C. Drew Harvell in the Science section of the NY Times, “spending more than 25 years researching the health of corals and sustainability of reefs. I’m captivated by the magic of sessile [attached by the base] invertebrates like corals, sponges and sea squirts — creatures vital to the ecosystem yet too often overlooked in favor of more visible animals like sharks and whales.
“The filmmaker David O. Brown and I want to change that. To make a documentary, Fragile Legacy, we are on a quest to lure these elusive and delicate invertebrates in front of the camera lens.
“Our inspiration springs from an unlikely source: a collection of 570 superbly wrought, anatomically perfect glass sculptures of marine creatures from the 19th century.
“These delicate folds and strands of glass make up the Blaschka collection of glass invertebrates at Cornell, of which I am the curator — enchanting and impossibly rare jellyfishes of the open ocean; more common but equally beautiful octopus, squid, anemones and nudibranchs from British tide pools and Mediterranean shores.
“They are the work of an extraordinary father-and-son team, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.”
Photo: Kent Loeffler
A glass sculpture of Facelina drummondii, a sea slug in Cornell’s Blaschka collection.
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