I attended Drew Harvell’s lecture on Cornell’s large collection of glass sea animal sculptures. According to Harvell, Cornell’s first President commissioned glass art from famous glass sculptors by the name of Blaschka. Our collection of water invertebrates sat unnoticed for over 100 years before they were rediscovered and repaired. They’ve been used in Harvell’s new documentary about how these sculptures were a ‘time capsule’ of water creatures over 100 years ago. Not only were the sculptures beautiful, but also helped professors here identify creatures that haven’t been seen a very long time.  

I was extremely shocked to see how realistic the glass sculptures looked! It was also refreshing to see Harvell use forgotten art for a scientific purpose.

This was absolutely my favorite one. I never knew glass sculptures could be so intricate and accurate. If you ever have time, you should look up the collection online or see it in Mann library