William Wordsworth once wrote that "nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower." But curators at Harvard's Botanical Museum are trying to do just that, as they embark on an unprecedented effort to restore the museum's renowned collection of glass flowers. Commissioned more than a century ago as teaching aids for Harvard's botany classes, the flowers are among the finest glass objects ever made— some 4,000 individual life-sized pieces representing more than 830 plant species. The replicas have a fresh-picked realism that makes most visitors do a double take.
A glass botanical model of diseased strawberry plants has acquired an age-related alkaline film.Photo by Grant Delin
