The Smithsonian Magazine
David Wilson’s career began like many in Los Angeles: working in the entertainment business. He was designing animations and miniature models for commercials, industrial films and promotions when, in 1984, he had an epiphany.
As recounted by David’s wife Diana in Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, a 1995 book by Lawrence Weschler, David was picking her up one day from tai chi class and passed her a note. On it was scribbled “Museum of Jurassic Technology.” She asked him, half-jokingly, if this was his life’s work. He just smiled at her.
For the first few years of its existence, the museum was a traveling collection of “cultural curiosities.” In 1988, Wilson and his collection took up residence in a 1,500-square-foot space in an unassuming West Los Angeles neighborhood, and today, the Museum of Jurassic Technology encompasses the entire 12,000 square foot building. In 2001, Wilson was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, often referred to as the “Genius Grant,” for his work underscoring “the fragility of our beliefs” and highlighting “the remarkable potential of the human imagination.”
David Wilson’s career began like many in Los Angeles: working in the entertainment business. He was designing animations and miniature models for commercials, industrial films and promotions when, in 1984, he had an epiphany.
As recounted by David’s wife Diana in Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, a 1995 book by Lawrence Weschler, David was picking her up one day from tai chi class and passed her a note. On it was scribbled “Museum of Jurassic Technology.” She asked him, half-jokingly, if this was his life’s work. He just smiled at her.
For the first few years of its existence, the museum was a traveling collection of “cultural curiosities.” In 1988, Wilson and his collection took up residence in a 1,500-square-foot space in an unassuming West Los Angeles neighborhood, and today, the Museum of Jurassic Technology encompasses the entire 12,000 square foot building. In 2001, Wilson was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, often referred to as the “Genius Grant,” for his work underscoring “the fragility of our beliefs” and highlighting “the remarkable potential of the human imagination.”
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