The Natural History Museum Blaschka collections

Abstract

The Natural History Museum, London holds 182 Blaschka marine invertebrate models of anemones, nudibranchs, cephalopods, jellyfish, protozoans and corals. The models arrived at the museum in 1866, 1876, 1883 and 1889 and are examples of Blaschka work spanning almost the entire time they made marine invertebrates. The archives at the Natural History Museum and the Rakow Library at the Corning Museum of Glass show details of direct interactions between the Blaschkas and museum staff who ordered models, probably also taxidermy eyes, complained when models arrived broken in 1883 and commissioned models directly. The archives also record interactions with intermediates like Reverend Hudson of Brighton who presented the British Museum with early models and Robert Damon, the Blaschkas' British agent. The models were displayed in the galleries at the museum from 1866 to the 1970s. A future exhibition will include a permanent mounting of several specimens in the main hall of the museum.

Keywords:

• Damon
• Hudson
• Günther
• Woodward
• transport
• commissions

Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been possible without the help of Aprille Nace, Librarian at The Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Research Library, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Polly Tucker, Archivist at the Natural History Museum, London is also thanked. Harry Taylor, Photo Studio, Natural History Museum photographed the radiolarian model. Alan Warren and Dave Roberts of the Zoology Department at the Natural History Museum provided information about the dismantling of the former exhibit. Comments on an early draft of this paper from Henri Reiling, Utrecht, significantly enhanced the paper, particularly with regard to the history behind the commissioning of the sponge models, interactions between the Blaschkas and the Reverend Hudson and information about Protozoa models. Michael P. Cooper Registrar, Nottingham City Museums & Galleries offered information about Robert Damon, and Geoff Swinney of The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh provided information about the early displays at the British Museum. The figured list of cephalopods is reproduced with permission from The Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York (CMGL Bib 94604.6). Jill Thomas-Clark is thanked for arranging this. The image of the radiolarian and the text of this paper remain copyright of the Natural History Museum.