After more than a century on display, Harvard's world-famous glass flower collection will get a delicate but much-needed facelift.

In a three-day process that began last night, the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) will take 40 percent of its 3,000-piece collection off display to await restoration work.

Restoring the entire collection--which even by conservative estimates will require more than 15,000 hours of labor--will take years and millions of dollars to complete.

The glass flowers exhibit--formally called the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants--is one of the University's most popular art collections and has been on continuous display in its entirety since 1936.

The flowers were commissioned in 1886 by a Harvard professor who wanted to teach from lifelike samples year-round. A father and son team of master glass-blowers took a half-century to create the collection.

But time and an enthusiastic public, however, have taken their toll on the delicate masterpieces.

"Some [of the pieces] have sustained damage from reverberations of the staircase," said Emer McCourt, head of marketing and public relations for HMNH. "We have 200 school-kids running up and down the stairs every day. Leaves or other parts are snapping off."

The footfalls of the museum's 120,000 annual visitors are not solely to blame. The glass creations also contain paint, glue and wire--materials that decay over time.