The story of the Blaschkas begins in the small town of Böhmisch Aicha (now Cˇesky´ Dub in the Czech Republic), where Leopold’s father continued the family tradition of flameworking. When Leopold was a student, his favorite  subjects were natural history and painting, and a visiting artist urged him to pursue a career in art. However, after serving an apprenticeship as a goldsmith and gem cutter in nearby Turnau (now Turnov), Leopold entered the family business of making costume jewelry and other fancy goods out of metal and flameworked glass.

Before the development of high-speed moving image media, or fiberglass, naturalists and educators faced a quandary: it was often impossible to demonstrate exactly what an invertebrate looked like without a live specimen, because the spine collapses and color leaches out of one preserved in

Who would have thought that a trip up a goat path would lead to the Museum’s acquisition of a 19th-century lampworking table that was part of the 2007 Botanical Wonders exhibition?

The Botanical Wonders exhibition celebrates the singular triumph of glassmakers Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) and his son Rudolf (1857-1939) and offers close-ups of the people and the craft process behind the Glass Flowers. David Whitehouse narrates. "Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers" May 18 -- November 25, 2007 at The Corning Museum of Glass.

Learn more about the lives of Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka and how they created the Glass Flower models for Harvard University at the turn of the 19th century. Glassmaker and historian William Gudenrath interviews co-curators Dr. David Whitehouse, former executive director of The Corning Museum of Glass, and Susan Rossi-Wilcox, recently retired administrator of the Glass Flowers Collection at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University.

In Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers , The Corning Museum of Glass brings to bear its unique curatorial, conservation, and glassmaking capabilities to illuminate more fully than ever before the story of the delicate glass replicas of botanical specimens known as the Glass Flowers of Harvard.

In “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers,” The Corning Museum of Glass brings to bear its unique curatorial, conservation, and glassmaking capabilities to illuminate more fully than ever before the story of the delicate glass replicas of botanical specimens known as the Glass Flowers of Harvard.

In “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers,” The Corning Museum of Glass brings to bear its unique curatorial, conservation, and glassmaking capabilities to illuminate more fully than ever before the story of the delicate glass replicas of botanical specimens known as the Glass Flowers of Harvard.

In “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers,” The Corning Museum of Glass brings to bear its unique curatorial, conservation, and glassmaking capabilities to illuminate more fully than ever before the story of the delicate glass replicas of botanical specimens known as the Glass Flowers of Harvard.

In “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers,” The Corning Museum of Glass brings to bear its unique curatorial, conservation, and glassmaking capabilities to illuminate more fully than ever before the story of the delicate glass replicas of botanical specimens known as the Glass Flowers of Harvard.