Museum Puts Glass Flowers Under Fluorescent Lighting

The University Museum has installed new fluorescent lighting in the glass flower displays, to bring out more exactly the painstaking fidelity to natural colors achieved by the late Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, German artist-naturalists who made the models for Harvard.

First placed on exhibit in 1890, the models were first shown under gas lights, and for many years have been shown under ordinary electric lights. Museum officials said that the new fluorescent lights will for the first time reveal in the displays the fine distinctions in shades of coloring attained by the Blaschkas.

Produced during the years 1887 to 1939, the Ware Collection of Glass Flowers is the most popular exhibit at the University, attracting some 200,000 visitors annually. The Blaschkas were the only artisans in the world combining the skill with glass and the knowledge of botany required to create the models, and the work ceased at the death of the two men.