Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka were glass artists from Dresden, Germany commissioned by Harvard University from 1887 to 1936 to create realistic replicas of plants. At the time there was no way to preserve and showcase plants to the public in their original, live state so glass was used instead. The two men made thousands of these models with no apprentices or help.
I got a book called Glass Flowers in Nashville, TN at Bookman, Bookwoman Books. It was printed in 1940 and has drawings by Fritz Kredel of 16 of the pieces from the Ware Collection, all with a focus on pollination. Each plate has a substantial description of the pollination of each flower.
It is the most beautiful book that I own.
Here are three of my favorite plates illustrated in the book. Click on them for a better look.
The collection is at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
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Here is a poem of mine from 2008. I have been posting older things because currently I am working on writing a bird field guide and a collection of nests. They have me preoccupied.
Recently, the two of us love with both
our hands, fondle sad things like hems,
corners, the edges of cherry orchards.
This is said to have made us both a little less
lonely seeming—we have suddenly become
landlocked. I speak brokenly in clock-tongue,
now. I only crane my neck. I know
only what it means to pray.
This is the North,
we discovered.
The definitive.
The North. So looking at you now
is like watching the compass settle,
finally. Today on the steps of a church was a woman
mourning someone her head thrown back,
hands pressed tightly to her chest without delicacy.
