Water: An American Amalgamation of Art and Science

Ashley E. Smith

Harvard University

Professor Gochberg, MUSE E-123 Telling New Stories with Objects

1 November 2024

Water: An American Amalgamation of Art and Science

Water: An American Amalgamation of Art and Science, represents a groundbreaking convergence of art, science, and environmental advocacy. Curated by Ashley E. Smith of Gryffin Studio, the exhibition brings together the intricate glass sculptures of marine invertebrates created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka and the emotive seascapes of Winslow Homer. A collaboration between The Harvard Art Museums, The Harvard Museums of Natural History, and The Harvard Museum of Scientific Instruments, the exhibition aims to raise awareness about the fragility of marine ecosystems and the finite nature of freshwater resources in the United States, highlighting the environmental conservation efforts spearheaded by The Waterkeeper Alliance.

Through Water, Smith explores the intersection of artistic expression and environmental advocacy, encouraging visitors to reflect on their relationship with water and the broader natural world. The exhibition invites guests to engage with several key themes: the historical importance of the Blaschka glassworks for marine science, the ways in which Homer’s art has shaped public perceptions of nature, and the role of art in supporting modern conservation efforts. Visitors will be introduced to the mission of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding the world’s waterways. Through immersive experiences, the exhibition aims to prompt conversations on sustainability and the urgent need to protect water resources.

The exhibition is informed by Fred Wilson’s curatorial methodology (Corrin), which seeks to alter the perception of objects by displaying them in new contexts to prompt fresh questions and perspectives. Water will debut at The Harvard Art Museums, chosen over the The Harvard Museums of Natural History, due to its more suitable exhibition space. The Special Exhibitions Gallery, Room 3500, offers both the necessary environment for displaying the fragile objects and the logistics for hosting public lectures and other interactive events throughout the exhibition’s run.

The timing of the exhibition is strategic, opening in the spring and concluding in the fall during the Head of the Charles Regatta, a time when people are most engaged with water-related recreational activities. During this period, visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the role of local Waterkeepers, who monitor and protect water systems throughout the region, as well as engage directly with conservation efforts.

One of the key challenges in mounting the exhibition is the delicate conservation of the objects. The Blaschka glass sculptures, in particular, require specific temperature and humidity controls to ensure their preservation. Additionally, oyster specimens from Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, and live mussels provided by The Waterkeeper Alliance, will require careful handling to maintain their viability. The exhibition’s curatorial team is working closely with conservators to address these challenges, with attention to the unique needs of each piece.

Smith’s interest in the subject matter was deepened by her encounters with books such as Tom’s River by Dan Fagin and The Riverkeepers by John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both of which explore the history of water pollution and the efforts to combat it. These books, which are sold in The Harvard Natural History Museum’s gift shop, helped shape Smith’s vision for the exhibition and further solidified her commitment to addressing water-related issues. As she works with The Waterkeeper Alliance and other regional environmental organizations, Smith hopes to inspire visitors to become more engaged with their local water systems and take an active role in their protection. For example, The Waterkeepers Alliance actively monitors water quality and sues violators of The Clean Water Act on behalf of the bodies of water that they protect.

“The Clean Water Act established the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulates quality standards for surface waters. Under The Clean Water Act, The Environmental Protection Agency has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. The Environmental Protection Agency also developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters.” (EPA).

The exhibition seeks to reflect the rich history of conservation efforts in the United States aforementioned. Smith, a rower and sailor with years of experience working closely with The Potomac Riverkeeper Network in Washington, D.C. draws inspiration from the grassroots movements that shaped modern environmental advocacy. The Riverkeeper movement, which began with fishermen on the Hudson River challenging corporate polluters, serves as a historical touchstone for the exhibition’s exploration of water pollution and its impact on both local communities and the environment. By engaging with these themes, the exhibition aims to highlight the current environmental crises facing our waterways due to mismanagement and misuse by corporations, and a general lack of public knowledge. Guest speakers to consider for the run of the exhibition include local and federal water officials, and those in charge of rerouting water, due to drought or poisoned resources, brought on by corporate over-farming, corporate waste dumping, and general climate change. Those mismanaging water on a corporate scale do their best to keep their maleficence out of the public eye. It is imperative that visitors learn where their water comes from and what happens to it before and after they consume it.

The exhibition draws on the legacy of Winslow Homer, an American painter from Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose iconic marine paintings provide a vivid portrayal of water’s importance in American life. Homer’s depictions of coastal life, fishing, and boating not only capture the beauty of the natural world, but reflect the ways in which humans depend on water for recreation and survival. His works offer familiar regional landscapes that the public will inherently recognize and relate to nostalgically. The exhibition will showcase several of Homer’s works from The Harvard Art Museums, offering viewers an opportunity to engage with the landscapes that inspired Homer’s work. Many Cambridge residents and Harvard students recreate on The Charles River and The Atlantic Ocean. Homer frequently traveled and stayed for extended periods of time in the surrounding areas of The Adirondack Mountain Range, in New York, and Prouts Neck, in southern Maine. Homer was an avid fisherman, like the founders and active conservationists with Waterkeepers Alliance, which is represented in all of the pieces selected for exhibition, listed below. Visitors can view the landscapes as Homer saw them, through his works. Most guests will likely be able to compare the locations in the paintings to what they look like today. Unwittingly, Homer provided water scientists and conservationists with an environmental time capsule, a tool that can be utilized to re-frame (Guerra and Shi) the artwork, tracking drastic changes. Note that this was previously explored and accomplished by Harvard focusing on works and writings of Thoreau.

A resource for visitors that would be beneficial to display, or to offer in the gift shop, would be Fishing in the North Woods: Winslow Homer by David Tatham. This beautiful book (it is full of his marine paintings) was published by Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts in association with Universe Publishing, keeping with the regional theme. In the description of the book alone, guests gain insightful understanding of the man Homer was and why his works may be beneficial to conservationists. For example:

“Homer doubtless saw parallels between what he did as a watercolorist and as a fly-fisher. In this unique volume, the essential role of the local guide is recounted and the record set straight on the distinguishing features of the famed Adirondak guideboat, a masterpiece of balanced beauty and function. The brilliantly colored fishing flies favored in Homer’s time are depicted as used in the quiet lake fishing of the Adirondacks and further north to Quebec, where Homer challenged the legendary gamefish ouananiche, or landlocked salmon. Beyond all the boating and fishing lore, it is ultimately the eloquent watercolors of Homer showcased here that truly convey a vision of the timeless solitude and tranquility of the north woods- and man’s poetic relation to nature.” (Homer and Tatham).

Smith will include the following Homer paintings for exhibition:

1969.7: Scene in the Adirondacks, 1892 o 35.5 x 51 cm. Watercolor over graphite on white wove paper.

1939.235: Pike, Lake St. John (Ouananiche Fishing), 1897 o 35.6 x 53.5 cm. Watercolor over graphite on heavy white wove paper.

1943.304: Mink Pond, 1891 o 35.2 x 50.8 cm. Transparent and opaque watercolor and graphite on heavy white wove paper.

1918.35: Fishing in the Adirondacks, 1889 o 35 x 50.5 cm. Watercolor over graphite on heavy white wove paper.

1924.30: Canoe in Rapids, 1897 Smith 10 o 35.4 x 53.3 cm. Transparent and opaque watercolor and graphite on offwhite wove paper.

1960.669: Indian Village, Adirondacks,1894 o 38.5 x 54.5 cm. Watercolor over graphite on heavy off-white wove paper.

1943.302: Adirondack Lake (Blue Monday), 1892 o 30.1 x 53.5 cm. Transparent and opaque watercolor on white wove paper.

These paintings, as aforementioned, like the Blaschka glass sculptures, serve as a visual time capsule. They illustrate the environment as it was during Homer’s time providing a valuable reference point for understanding the impact of modern human activity on marine ecosystems. Water seeks to utilize Blaschka’s fragile Glass Invertebrates to evoke a sense of urgency in guests regarding the protection of marine environments. Blaschka’s glass invertebrates, created in the late 19th century, were designed for scientific education and preservation of marine specimens for marine biologists. They offered a striking visual representation of the diversity of ocean life, mostly unknown at that time.

Smith will exhibit no less than five glass creatures, representative of different bodies of water and habitats related to American waters, specifically to the Mid-Atlantic and Northern Atlantic regions. It is important initially to focus on these regions due to Harvard’s location, the exhibition’s collaborators, guests, and the thematic alignment of supporting objects.

Shadows of similar concepts for Water were exhibited brilliantly and successfully at Cornell University between 2016 and 2017, using Cornell’s private collection of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka’s Glass Invertebrates, along with their 2015 documentary, Fragile Legacy. The curators, in collaboration with professional film crews, sought to re-frame (Guerra and Shi) their collection as, “a time capsule for seeking out and documenting the creatures still living in our oceans today.” (Fragile Legacy: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka | Corning Museum of Glass). Per Cornell Curator, Dr. Drew Harvell, interviewed between 2016-2017, “If ever there was a time to compare the plentiful past with an ocean in jeopardy, that time would be now.” (Fragile Legacy).

In short, the Cornell team conducted diving expeditions around the world to find and film the creatures that inspired the Blaschka’s pieces. They explored, learning which ones were still alive, which appeared to have gone extinct, the condition of the habitats today compared to the Blaschka’s reality, and what evolutionary changes have occurred in the time since due to human created habitat change. It was an opportunity to demonstrate the mastery of how exact and lifelike the Blaschkas made the creatures, comparing them to the films taken of the real creatures. Cornell emphasized the history of the Blaschka’s and the techniques of their glass making, narrowing in on how important it was for marine scientists at that time to have models of the creatures to study.

As Harvard did the same, purchasing Glass Invertebrates from the Blaschkas, and as Harvard was the final home to the Blaschkas and their works, especially their final Glass Flowers, Smith plans to draw inspiration from Cornell’s documentary and exhibition, taking their focus on comparative marine science in the Blaschka’s time to marine science now, and expanding it further with the other mediums exhibited and the water conservation organizations spotlighted. Sadly, “with the creation of the Aqualung and underwater filming, the Blaschka’s collection fell into disuse.” (Fragile Legacy). To demonstrate to this revolutionary sabotage, Smith will request to borrow The Rainy Rolls, a 1933 Rolls Royce piece located inside the gift shop of The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. (1933 ROLLS ROYCE: Tribute to Dali- The Rainy Rolls). The Rolls Royce features a bronze helmeted diver at its wheel and is a fountain of sorts, with water bubbling up and raining inside the car with the diver.

Smith wishes to collaborate with the curators of Cornell to exhibit their film documentary as a special opening and closing event. Similarly, during the run, films created for The Waterkeepers Alliance, such as After the Storm: Pollution in the Potomac (After the Storm: Pollution in the Potomac - Watch Now - DCEFF) can also have special events created for exhibiting, with permission and collaboration from the DC Environmental Film Festival. The integration of art with the Blaschka glassworks underscores the exhibition’s central message: the protection of nature is both an aesthetic and an ethical imperative. By placing these objects in conversation with each other, Smith aims to foster a deeper appreciation for the fragility and beauty of marine life while highlighting the urgent need for action. The exhibition will serve as a call to action, encouraging visitors to reflect on their role in the preservation of water resources, and to take steps toward protecting the world’s waterways.

Finally, in addition to artworks by Homer and the Blaschka glass sculptures, along with demonstrations by Waterkeepers, Water will feature a variety of objects from The Harvard Museum of Scientific Objects, including beakers and test tubes symbolizing the Waterkeeper’s efforts to monitor water quality and publish weekly SwimGuide recommendations. Due to their filtrating properties mentioned previously, Smith is particularly interested in exhibiting oyster specimens (Eastern Oyster [#MCZ 223582], Windowpane Oyster [MCZ #94291], and Pearl Oyster [MCZ #295519], “Crassostrea Virginica Ostreidae”) from The Museum of Comparative Zoology. Smith will conduct live water filtration science demonstrations with mussels. This was demonstrated to her by The Potomac Riverkeeper Network. The mussels are placed in tanks of untreated river water to demonstrate their ability to filter pollutants and improve water quality in real time. This live demonstration will offer a striking visual representation, especially for children, of the power of natural filtration and the potential for restoration in polluted ecosystems.

As evidenced, the juxtaposition of art and scientific advocacy underscores and successfully re-frames (Guerra and Shi) the narrative that protecting nature is an aesthetic as well as an ethical imperative. Changing the context and location of Harvard’s hisorical museum objects, as demonstrated by Fred Wilson (Corrin), combining Winslow Homer paintings from The Harvard Art Museums with Blaschka Glass Invertebrates and the oysters from The Harvard Natural History Museums, including objects from The Harvard Museum of Scientific Instruments and various pieces from collaborators, elevates all objects in service to a modern-day movement that, alone, they would never be able to achieve.

Guests will leave Water inspired to take action with resources to achieve success, inundated in a marine conservation aesthetic, with one of Blaschka’s Glass Invertebrates acting as the modern-day Smokey the Bear of the Water campaign. Focusing initially on only regional water activity leaves room for future collaborations with museums from other water regions, potentially traveling exhibits, under the banner of Harvard. Harvard will have the opportunity to be a leading voice, elevating the work of its collaborators, in active marine science once more. Smith can only hope that the Blaschkas and Homer would be proud of their revived legacies and the impacts to be made for the waterways of the world.

Works Cited

“1933 ROLLS ROYCE: Tribute to Dali- “the Rainy Rolls.”” Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, 2024, www.tbauto.org/car-collection/1933-rolls-royce. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

“About Us.” Waterkeeper, 2024, waterkeeper.org/about-us/.

“After the Storm: Pollution in the Potomac - Watch Now - DCEFF.” DCEFF, 31 Aug. 2023, dceff.org/film/after-the-storm-pollution-in-the-potomac/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2024.

Corrin, Lisa. “Mining the Museum: An Installation Confronting History.” Curator: The Museum Journal, vol. 36, no. 4, Dec. 1993, pp. 302–313, historyinpublic.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2016/01/Curator_Mining-the-Museum.pdf, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.1993.tb00804.x. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

“Crassostrea Virginica Ostreidae.” Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology Invertebrate Paleontology, 2024. EPA.

“Summary of the Clean Water Act.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, 22 June 2023, www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act.

Purcell, Rosamond. A Conversation with Rosamond Purcell. 2021.

“Fragile Legacy.” Fragilelegacy.info, 2024, fragilelegacy.info/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

“Fragile Legacy: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka | Corning Museum of Glass.” Corning Museum of Glass, 2016, whatson.cmog.org/exhibitions-galleries/fragile-legacy-marine-invertebrate-glass-modelsleopold-and-rudolf-blaschka. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Guerra, Jorge, and Davin Shi. “Harvard Art Museums Implement “ReFrame” Initiative.” The Harvard Crimson, The Harvard Crimson, Inc., 28 Feb. 2022, www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/2/28/reframe-initiative-makes-progress/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Adirondack Lake (Blue Monday), 1892, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/307937?position=307937. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Canoe in Rapids, 1897, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/306171?position=306171. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Fishing in the Adirondacks, 1889, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/305971?position=305971. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Indian Village, Adirondacks, 1894, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/308599?position=308599. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Mink Pond, 1891, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/307976?position=307976. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Pike, Lake St. John (Ouananiche Fishing), 1897, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/307849?position=307849. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow. Scene in the Adirondacks, 1892, harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/308842?position=308842. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Homer, Winslow, and David Tatham. Fishing in the North Woods. Universe Publishing (NY), 1995.

“Our Story.” Charles River Watershed Association, 2024, www.crwa.org/about. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Photos in the carousel above were obtained from the websites of the Harvard Art Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Dali Museum, the Waterkeeper Alliance, the Potomac Riverkeeper, and include personal photos taken by Smith. Please note that this essay was an assignment and consequently followed specific criteria outlined in a rubric for a grade.