#  Sea Creatures in Glass 

 



       ![_mcz_sc119-hrm_4679-hydroidmed.small_.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4986/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/hmnh/files/_mcz_sc119-hrm_4679-hydroidmed.small_.jpg?itok=jop5H3yX) 

 

 



 

 



 

Many years before they were commissioned by Harvard University to make the [Glass Flowers](/glass-flowers "Glass Flowers: The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants"), father and son artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka meticulously shaped glass into lifelike models of marine and terrestrial animals. Renowned for their beauty and exacting detail, the Blaschka invertebrate models were commissioned by universities and museums throughout world during the nineteenth century.

In May 2014, the museum opened a permanent display of 60 models from the [Museum of Comparative Zoology’s collection of 430 Blaschka invertebrate models](https://mcz.harvard.edu/blaschka-glass-invertebrates). Delicate jellyfish and anemones, octopus, tentacled squid, bizarre-looking sea slugs or nudibranchs, and other soft-bodied sea creatures captured in glass are a sparkling testament to the Blaschka legacy.

The exhibit is the culmination of the Museum of Comparative Zoology's near completion of an eight-year project to curate, clean, and repair all of its 430 invertebrate models. Together with Harvard’s Ware Collection of Glass Models of Plants, with over 3,200 specimens on display, these restored glass animals now comprise the largest Blaschka collection on display in the world.

Support for *Sea Creatures in Glass* is made possible by a generous gift in memory of Melvin R. Seiden, Harvard AB '52, LLB '55.

The new book *Sea Creatures in Glass, The Blaschka Marine Animals at Harvard* won second place in New England Museum Association 2017 Publication Awards. The Publication Awards honor excellence in design, publication, and communication in the world of print and digital museum publishing.



 

##  Related Events 

 



  [### Sea Creatures in Glass

 ](/event/sea-creatures-glass-0?occ_id=0)Nov 2, 2016

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 6:00PM EDT 

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 Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street 

 

 In Person 

 Lecture and Book Signing. Elizabeth R. Brill, Sea Creatures Preservation Specialist David O. Brown, Photographer and Filmmaker Gonzalo Giribet, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Curator of... 

 

 

 event 

 

  

 

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##  Buy in the Museum Shop 

   ![Image of the book ](/sites/g/files/omnuum4986/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hmnh/files/seacreaturesbook.jpg?itok=6tdlV1um) 

 

The award-winning book, *Sea Creatures in Glass, The Blaschka Marine Animals at Harvard,* features exquisite new photography of a selection from the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology's remarkable collection of glass marine animals created by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka.