Blaschka Eyes (283)
Stop Number:
283
Rudolf Blaschka; Leopold Blaschka
Germany
About 1880–1920
Glass
(A) W: 2.5 cm, (B) W: 2.6 cm
(93.3.73)
When the curators of natural history museums displayed the mounted skins of elephants, lions, tigers, and gorillas, they substituted the animals’ real eyes with glass eyes made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, such as the ones on display in the case here. The Blaschkas also supplied larger eyes than these on display for some of the world’s largest mammal specimens. In addition, they made prosthetic eyes for living humans.