The Natural History Museum Blaschka collections

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.