ACADEMY OP SCIENCES] BIOGRAPHY 5 



It provided for botany at Harvard quarters coordinate with those previously erected for 

 zoology and ethnology and subsequently added for geology and mineralogy. It thus gave the 

 science its proper place in the comprehensive scheme initiated by the Agassizes. The building 

 is of impressive dimensions and has many excellent features. It is a serious businesslike struc- 

 ture in which arclutectural embellishment has been completely eliminated and the ends sought 

 have been simplicity, space, and durability. It was "mill built." It was a notable advance 

 upon what had previously existed. It must not be judged by standards of construction only 

 at a later date rendered possible by unexpected advances in steel framing, reinforced concrete, 

 electric devices, or metal furnishing. 



Having thus secured for the university the needful housing for a botanical museum, Doctor 

 Goodale set himself seriously about the task of assembling exhibits appropriate to popular 

 illustration of his science. 



In this task he encountered difficulties of a general and psychological nature as well as 

 those of concrete detail. He was well aware that previous attempts to make a botanical 

 museum a thing of popular interest had met with little success. Plant life itself lacks much 

 of the human appeal which can be aroused by the clever preparator who stages a pair of nesting 

 birds, a beaver diligently engaged in feats of surprising construction, a serpent charming its 

 prey, or an insect astonishingly obscured by protective mimicry. Nor do dried plants com- 

 pare as museum objects with varied minerals, precious stones or meteorites, nor yet with models 

 of canyons, volcanoes, atolls, and other surprising geological phenomena. Still less are they 

 comparable in popular interest with archeological exhibits depicting primitive humanity in its 

 homely occupations. It was clear that a botanical section in a general museum, if it was to 

 hold its own, must include objects of much greater esthetic appeal than wood samples, fibers, 

 gums, or grains, and far more immediate interest than dried fruits, nuts, or cones. Models 

 would have to be constructed which would give lifelike representation of the plants themselves 

 with details of form and color. This ambition was not a new one, but the results attained, up 

 to that date, in plaster, wood pulp, or wax had been either extremely crude and clumsy or else 

 of a perishable nature. 



While seeking a practicable solution of this problem, Doctor Goodale was attracted about, 

 1885, by some exceptionally lifelike models in glass of marine invertebrates made by Leopold 

 and Rudolph Blaschka. Conceiving that the unusual talent thus shown might attain the 

 desired ends, if directed to plant structures, Doctor Goodale entered into correspondence with 

 the Blaschkas and not long after visited them at their home in Meissen, near Dresden. They 

 were at first reluctant to undertake subjects so remote from their previous experience, but were 

 soon induced to prepare some sample models of flowers and plants. 



These were forwarded to Cambridge, but were shattered in transit. Undiscouraged, Doctor 

 Goodale saw even in the fragments such evidence of ability on the part of the artists that he 

 showed the pieces to several influential friends. Among these were Mrs. Elizabeth C. Ware, 

 of Boston, and her daughter, Miss Mary Lee Ware, who took an immediate and gratifying 

 interest in the undertaking and promised it their support. Business details were arranged 

 and the Blaschkas, father and son, entered upon a contract extending through a number of years 

 and securing to the Harvard Botanical Museum their entire output. 



The notable, indeed unique, collection of glass models of plants, flowers, fruits, vegetable 

 structures, and anatomical details is too well known to need description. It was entirely and 

 very liberally financed by Mrs. and Miss Ware as a memorial to their husband and father, Dr. 

 Charles E. Ware. Its success as a popular and drawing exhibit was immediate. Within a 

 few weeks of its installation the attendance at the museum greatly increased and at times was 

 more than doubled. 



With a central feature so notable, it was then possible to group attractively and with 

 telling effect in adjacent rooms exhibits of much cleverness to inform the public regarding a 

 great variety of vegetable structures and products. To the most telling disposition, protection, 

 and labeling of these Doctor Goodale gave painstaking attention. 



