Glass Flowers to Show in New York

The Botanical Museum will display their Blaschka Glass Flower collection outside of the University for only the second time in 83 years, Richard E. Schultes '37, director of the museum said yesterday.

The exhibition will be held from March 9 until April 3 at Steuben Glass in New York in connection with the current fund drive to rehouse the glass flowers on the first floor of the museum, Schultes said.

The Botanical Museum is currently trying to raise $400,000 to improve methods used to preserve the extremely fragile flowers.

Elaborate measures

The museum is taking elaborate measures to insure the safety of the flowers. "They will be flown to La Guardia Airport in especially constructed crates, aboard small planes and will be driven to Steuben Glass in heavy-springed, ambulance-type cars," Schultes said.

William A. Davis, curator of the Scientific Exhibits, will accompany the exhibits to and from New York and will direct their mounting.

25 Flowers Sent

Schultes said the museum will send 25 flowers selected on the basis of their artistic merit as well as their familiarity to native New Yorkers.

It is estimated that 185,000 people visit the exhibit at Harvard yearly. Schultes said however, that "the glass flowers are not here to entertain the public, but for use in teaching botany."

He added that the educational value of the glass flowers is due to their great intricacy and to their not being susceptible to the seasonal variation of real flowers.

No secret

Schultes said that a myth had been perpetuated that called the flower-making process secret and known only to Blaschka. He dismissed this, saying that the process was well known to Blaschka's contemporaries.

He added that it would take a person "with the mind of a naturalist, the fingers of an artist and finally, patience," to produce such delicate works today.

In 1974, Harvard allowed three specimens to be exhibited in Tokyo. At that time, Japan had a Harvard exhibit and requested the glass flowers as part of the art section.

Proceeds raised

Davis said that the exhibit in New York will benefit the collection because the proceeds will be used toward expenses and future upkeep of the glass flowers in the Peabody Museum.