Blaschka models
A new temporary exhibition of Blaschka models, called Crystal Creatures, opened recently in the Natural History Museum in conjunction with the Dublin Blaschka Congress. This conference, co-hosted by the Museum and UCD, was the first ever international scholarly meeting focussing on the work of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.
A joint venture between University College Dublin’s Collections-based Biology in Dublin (CoBiD) and the Natural History Museum, Crystal Creatures displays models never before seen by the public from the National Museum research collection and the four universities. “The glass exhibits are shown next to their counterparts in nature”, said Julia Sigwart, Director of CoBiD. “There are nine mini displays; each about a species of marine animal, and each one with a theme or story as well as scientific information.”
In keeping with the Victorian age of discovery, Dublin’s Natural History Museum purchased over 500 glass models of invertebrate animals, both marine and terrestrial, from the Blaschka workshop in Germany between 1878 and 1888. The models represented animals that would have been impossible to preserve for study using the available technology of the day – animals such as jellyfish, anemones, snails and slugs, as well as microscopic organisms – hence their importance in the 19th century. At the same time four Irish universities - UCD, NUI Galway, TCD, and UCC were also purchasing models from the Blaschkas.
With over 500 of these models, the Natural History Museum has the largest collection of animals on display in the world, with over 300 models on permanent display in their original context, that of a Victorian museum.
While the models were made as teaching tool for biology, they are beautiful sculptures in their own right. The Irish collections are also particularly important because models of marine creatures were no longer available after 1890 when the Blashkas signed an exclusive agreement with Harvard University to produce their world famous ‘glass flowers’, which is now the largest collection in the world comprising more than 4,000 pieces.
Crystal Creatures runs from September 2006 until January 2007 in the Irish Room (ground floor) of the Natural History Museum (National Museum of Ireland).
For further information see: http://www.ucd.ie/blaschka
