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148:, and through outside research on several exhibitions. His investigations into the history of certain exhibits led to varying results of authenticity; some exhibits seem to have been created by Wilson's imagination while other exhibits might be suitable for display in a natural history museum. The Museum of Jurassic Technology at its heart, according to Wilson, is "a museum interested in presenting phenomena that other natural history museums are unwilling to present."
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The museum's introductory slideshow recounts that "In its original sense, the term, 'museum' meant 'a spot dedicated to the Muses, a place where man's mind could attain a mood of aloofness above everyday affairs'". In this spirit, the dimly lit atmosphere, wood and glass vitrines, and labyrinthine
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suggests that memory is an elaborate construction that humankind has created "to buffer ourselves against the intolerable knowledge of the irreversible passage of time and the irretrievability of its moments and events." There is only experience and the decay of experience, an idea he illustrates
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floorplan lead visitors through an eclectic range of exhibits on art, natural history, history of science, philosophy, and anthropology, with a special focus on the history of museums and the variety of paths to knowledge. The museum attracts approximately 25,000 visitors per year.
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The Borzoi
Kabinet Theater screens a series of poetic documentaries produced by the Museum of Jurassic Technology in collaboration with the St. Petersburg–based arts and science collective Kabinet. The series of films, entitled
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magazine called it "a witty, self-conscious homage to private museums of yore . . . when natural history was only barely charted by science, and museums were closer to
Renaissance cabinets of curiosity." In a similar vein,
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and Diana Drake Wilson in 1988. It calls itself "an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower
Jurassic", the relevance of the term "
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that were the 16th-century predecessors of modern natural-history museums. The factual claims of many of the museum's exhibits strain credibility, provoking an array of interpretations.
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329:: "The Learner must be led always from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar, guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life". The titles of the films are
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The Delani/Sonnabend Halls: Recalling the intertwining story of an ill-fated opera singer, Madalena Delani, with a theoretician of memory, Geoffrey
Sonnabend, whose three-part work
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The museum's collection includes a mixture of artistic, scientific, ethnographic, and historic items, as well as some unclassifiable exhibits; the diversity evokes the
422:" The Museum of Jurassic Technology: A throwback to the private museums of earlier centuries, this Los Angeles spot has a true hodgepodge of natural history artifacts"
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No One May Ever Have the Same
Knowledge Again: Letters to Mt. Wilson Observatory : A small room dedicated to unusual letters and theories received by the
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Micromosaics of Harold "Henry" Dalton: Microscopic mosaics from the 19th century depicting flowers, animals, and other objects, made entirely from individual
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400:"Weird Science : Palms' quirky Museum of Jurassic Technology offers curioser and curioser displays, likely to prompt more questions than they answer"
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144:, attempts to explain the mystery of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Weschler deeply explores the museum through conversations with its founder,
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182:: A collection of micro-miniature sculptures, each carved from a single human hair and placed within the eye of a needle. Currently on display:
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tea and accompanying cookies are served, the cost covered by the price of admission. This room is a miniature reconstruction of the study of
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264:: A survey of the fields of study, writings and inventions of the 17th-century Jesuit polymath who was the founder of the
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The museum contains an unusual collection of exhibits and objects with varying and uncertain degrees of authenticity.
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Mr. Wilson's
Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, And Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology
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Mr. Wilson's
Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, And Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology
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Tell the Bees: Belief, Knowledge, and
Hypersymbolic Cognition: An exhibit of pre-scientific cures and remedies
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Rotten Luck: The
Decaying Dice of Ricky Jay: A collection of decomposing antique dice once owned by magician
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The Lives of
Perfect Creatures: The Dogs of the Soviet Space Program: An oil portrait gallery of the heroic
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described it as a "museum about museums", "where the persistent question is: what kind of place is this?"
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From 1992 to 2006, the museum's Foundation Collection was on display in its Tochtermuseum at the
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633:"An Afternoon in The Museum of Jurassic Technology: The 'Strangest Museum in America'"
516:"Jurassic Genius David Wilson: Offbeat Museum Curator Wins Prestigious 'Genius Grant'"
366:: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology
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Fairly Safely Venture: String Figures from Many Lands and their Venerable Collectors
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Museum of Jurassic Technology, 9341 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, served by the
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The Garden of Eden on Wheels: Collections from Los Angeles Area Trailer Parks
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539:"A cabinet of wonder: A Los Angeles museum filled with curio and mystery"
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206:(made of a single strand of the artist's hair and gold); characters like
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at Museum of Jurassic Technology official website (accessed 2012-10-10).
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The museum maintains more than thirty permanent exhibits, including:
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Fairly Safely Venture: String Figures and their Venerable Collectors
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In 2005, the museum opened its Tula Tea Room, a Russian-style
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Mark Edward's Skeptiblog "A Museum that makes you think" 2010
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The World is Bound with Secret Knots: The Life and Works of
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Obliscence: Theories of Forgetting and the Problem of Matter
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Levsha: The Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea
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Bol'shoe Sovietskaia Zatmenie: The Great Soviet Eclipse
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240:: A collection of stereographic radiographs of flowers
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with a complex diagram of a plane intersecting a cone.
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122:said the museum "captures a time chronicled in
357:The museum was the subject of a 1995 book by
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720:Jeanne Scheper, Interview with David Wilson
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779:Art museums and galleries in Los Angeles
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663:"Inside Los Angeles's Strangest Museum"
498:MacArthur Foundation Fellows List, 2001
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325:, draws its name from the quotation by
178:The Unique World of Microminiatures of
249:Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck
794:Natural history museums in California
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581:"The Museum of Jurassic Technology"
84:David Hildebrand Wilson received a
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809:1987 establishments in California
473:"Where Outlandish Meets Landish"
236:The Stereofloral Radiographs of
194:. Other microminiatures include
673:from the original on 2022-12-27
643:from the original on 2023-04-30
609:Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum Hagen
591:from the original on 2018-09-28
216:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
364:Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder
62:Rotten Luck: Decaying Dice of
1:
447:"Introduction and Background"
21:Museum of Jurassic Technology
714:Jurassic Genius David Wilson
631:Jones, Oliver (2015-08-04).
335:Obshee Delo: The Common Task
804:Museums established in 1987
564:Weschler, Lawrence (1995).
343:The Book of Wisdom and Lies
247:and documented in his book
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568:. New York: Random House.
283:Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum
255:Mount Wilson Observatory
618:Retrieved 4 April 2018.
371:The Museum of Innocence
79:cabinets of curiosities
52:Culver City, California
37:David Hildebrand Wilson
33:Los Angeles, California
789:Museums in Los Angeles
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755:34.02586°N 118.3950°W
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347:Language of the Birds
327:Charles Willson Peale
231:butterfly wing scales
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667:Smithsonian Magazine
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86:MacArthur Foundation
760:34.02586; -118.3950
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529:, October 27, 2001.
293:Auxiliary functions
799:Palms, Los Angeles
706:A Separate Reality
704:Roadtrip America:
614:2018-04-04 at the
544:2014-05-05 at the
521:2018-04-04 at the
503:2007-09-29 at the
488:, January 9, 2012.
485:The New York Times
478:2017-03-13 at the
452:2012-10-14 at the
427:2013-01-17 at the
353:In popular culture
323:A Chain of Flowers
262:Athanasius Kircher
238:Albert G. Richards
102:The New York Times
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579:Perrottet, Tony.
405:Los Angeles Times
359:Lawrence Weschler
273:cosmonaut canines
266:Kircherian Museum
226:swinging his bat.
188:Pope John Paul II
180:Hagop Sandaldjian
136:Lawrence Weschler
129:The Age of Wonder
35:, was founded by
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25:Venice Boulevard
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398:David Wharton,
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307:Tsar Nicolas II
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257:circa 1915–1935
224:baseball player
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746:118°23′42″W
585:Smithsonian
434:Smithsonian
380:Orhan Pamuk
233:and diatoms
220:golf player
208:Donald Duck
112:Smithsonian
773:Categories
743:34°01′33″N
677:2023-04-30
647:2023-04-30
595:2018-09-27
386:References
378:-laureate
192:Napoleon I
89:fellowship
361:entitled
309:from the
245:Ricky Jay
212:Pinocchio
91:in 2001.
64:Ricky Jay
671:Archived
641:Archived
612:Archived
589:Archived
542:Archived
519:Archived
501:Archived
476:Archived
450:Archived
425:Archived
349:(2012).
341:(2008),
337:(2005),
333:(2001),
303:Georgian
299:tea room
222:; and a
204:crucifix
156:Exhibits
95:Overview
23:at 9341
268:in Rome
200:dancers
196:violins
105:critic
27:in the
301:where
190:, and
376:Nobel
184:Goofy
29:Palms
202:; a
19:The
527:NPR
313:in
285:in
775::
722:,
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623:^
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