I went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. The museum is known for the glass flowers. The glass flowers were created by Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolf. Unfortunately the most of the glass flower display was closed for renovation. Therefore, I had to be satisfied with the few items on display.
I loved the glass models of flowers and invertebrate animals by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. They created 131 models of sea slugs, jelly fish and other invertebrates. Leopold and Rudolf made 4400 glass flower models. All the models looked realistic. The sea slugs and jelly fish looked alien, colorful and beautiful.
Glass model of a flower and banana
Glass model of the carnivorous Pitcher plant
Glass models of jellyfish and other sea creatures
Glass model of Sea Swallow
There were also many African wildlife specimens, which included species like hippopotamus, gorilla, giraffe, zebra etc. When I looked at the life size specimens, I could not shake off the feeling that they will either blink their eyes or turn towards me. Fortunately, they did not do that.
The Birds of the World Gallery had specimens of about 10,000 birds.
Specimens of Barred Owl and Great Horned Owl
American black bear
Andcan Cock-of-the-rock and Guianan Cock-of-the-rock. Their beaks looked funny.
Deer & other wildlife
Specimens of Humming birds
The Earth & Planetary Sciences section had thousands of rare minerals and gemstones, both polished and unpolished. These geological specimens were collected from all over the World. The chemical diversity of the rocks and minerals were amazing. Structures of a few of the rocks and minerals looked like sea creatures.
1600 Pound of Amethyst from a Brazilian State
Colorful quartz
Calcite
Labradorite
Mesolite
Stilbite
On the whole, it was a well spent afternoon amidst the magnificent specimens. At the end of it, I wished the creatures were alive and breathing. That would have made my afternoon a lot more lively.
Quote for this post: Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher – William Wordsworth
