Taxidermy and Glass Sea Life in Vienna

Curious Expeditions’ latest outing takes them through the Vienna Natural History Museum, where they check out scads of incredible taxidermy and also the glasswork that goes into making replica sea-life. Why? Because you can’t stuff and mount a jellyfish:

There were a number of beautiful glass models in the section of ocean-life. Delicate and lifelike, the models were of jellyfish and sea anemones; creatures that tend to lose their beauty in the wet specimen’s jar of formaldehyde. What whimsy, what a clever solution, I thought. Imagine then my surprise when D promptly informed me that these glass models were no modern creation. They were the work of the 19th century Blaschkas, a father and son team of expert glassmakers.

Read the full article here, then go check out their kickass Flickr photoset.