I walked through the atrium of Corson-Mudd Hall almost every day last spring, but I never once stopped to notice the restored Blaschka glass models on display there. I passed through Corson-Mudd only as a shortcut to the lab I work in on the Biotech quad, so I was almost always rushed and distracted. Still, I would have thought that at least once I would have given the models some attention – it took Drew Harvell’s talk and film to highlight something that had been right in front of me.

In a similar way, Leopold Blaschka first noticed the creatures that he eventually modeled for Cornell while he was stuck at sea. He didn’t originally pay them much attention, but once he was forced to stop and observe them closely, he was awed by their variety and beauty and wanted to show them to others.

Dr. Harvell and David Brown took Blaschka’s work and made it even more unique than it was in his time. They not only captured images of creatures that are being endangered by pollution and human activity, they also created an intersection between past and present that was wonderful to watch. Seeing the Blaschka models right next to their present-day, living counterparts showed both how the sea has changed and how some of the creatures in it are exactly the same when Blaschka watched them. This kind of opportunity is rare, especially with models that are purposely so exact and creatures that are so rarely seen.

Now that I know about the models and where they came from, I’ve stopped a few times to look at the ones on display in Corson-Mudd. I’m grateful that I can now appreciate them for the teaching tools, pieces of art and historical records that they are.