In the early 1880's, Professor George Lincoln Goodale, the 

 first director of the Botanical Museum, was in the process of 

 planning the Museum's exhibits. In addition to being very 

 instrumental in raising funds for the construction of the build- 

 ing, he was preoccupied with plans for equipping the building 

 for research and instruction. In order to provide materials for 

 botanical instruction, he explored several possibilities. At that 

 time, plant reproductions were being made from wax and paper 

 mache, neither of which were really satisfactory for his purposes. 



He had in mind plant reproductions which would be on a par 

 with the three dimensional specimens of animals he had seen in 

 Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology where there were 

 exhibited a number of life-like glass models from the Blaschka 

 studio. Impressed with their fidelity to the living forms and 

 believing that they might also make plants, he visited them in 

 Germany. Cordially received, he stated the purpose of his visit. 

 Leopold was reluctant to take on the project. Some years earlier 

 he had made a few plant models, but in view of difficulties in 

 receiving proper payment for them, he was resuming work on 

 animals. Furthermore, the marine invertebrate models that he 

 and his son were producing for many museums were providing 

 them with a satisfactory income. 



Professor Goodale must have been persuasive, because at that 

 first meeting he did get Leopold to agree to create a few models 

 to be sent to Cambridge. Reaching New York, they were badly 

 damaged in customs. Notwithstanding this misfortune, the 

 broken models were forwarded to Cambridge, where they were 

 shown to a group of friends of the Museum. It was evident, even 

 in their damaged state, that they were of very high quality. Two 

 of the Museum friends present at this showing were sufficiently 

 impressed to authorize Professor Goodale, on their behalf, to 

 engage the artists to produce more glass models of plants. The 

 Blaschkas agreed on a half-time basis, while continuing to pro- 

 duce models of marine invertebrates for other museums. They 

 worked in this manner from 1887 until 1890, when they decided 

 to work with plants or invertebrates but not with both. On April 

 16th, 1890, the die was cast in favor of plant models when they 

 signed a ten year contract to make plant models exclusively for 

 Harvard University. 



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