Cornell Collection of Blaschka Invertebrate Models
About this collection
This digital collection contains photographs of two hundred and fifty glass invertebrate models created by 19th century glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Under the direction of former curator Dr. Drew Harvell, Cornell’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary has undertaken the full restoration of the collection in collaboration with the Corning Museum of Glass. Some restored items from the physical collection are on display at Ithaca’s Museum of the Earth.
Cornell University is one of a handful of academic institutions in the United States with a collection of glass invertebrates. Professor John Henry Comstock suggested to Cornell President Andrew Dickson White in 1882 to consider acquiring samples of glass invertebrates from Ward’s Natural Science Establishment catalog. Cornell's collection of these glass creatures contains about 570 models, some of which are on exhibit at Corson Mudd Hall and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum.
Historical context
Artifacts inevitably reflect the cultural values leading to their creation. In 19th century Europe and America, an explosion of interest in science and education directly affected Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Reflecting these interests, new museums were built and opened to the public. They differed from earlier museums not only by admitting the public but also by featuring collections that illustrated science and natural history and often displayed systematic arrangements of plants and animals. Leopold Blaschka solved a problem that challenged the curators of these new natural history museums -- the display of marine invertebrates. Unlike specimens with backbones, which could be stuffed and mounted, invertebrates had to be preserved in alcohol and inevitably lost their colors and shapes. Glass proved to be the ideal material to recreate these fragile forms.
Although the father and son team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka were not the only makers of natural history educational models in the 19th century, they were the only ones creating glass models. Other model makers used wax or papier maché, neither of which has the precision of detail or longevity found in glass. The two Blaschkas supplied museums and universities all over the world with stunningly lifelike models of plants and animals. Their work culminated in the Ware Collection of Glass Plants at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, completed by Rudolf in the 1930s.
Using the collection
For questions about the glass Blaschka models at Cornell University, please contact the current curator: Dr. Leslie S. Babonis, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at lsb257@cornell.edu.
For questions about this digital collection, please contact mann_ref@cornell.edu
.More information
- Collection steward
- Michael Cook, Environmental Studies Curator
- Metadata creation
- Reyn Yoshioka, Jazz Burns, Cornell University Library
- Funding
- Grants Program for Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences, 2016; awarded to Nelson Hairston and Drew Harvell, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
- Credits
- This collection overview was last reviewed in 2025.
- Collection sources