Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology is a book by Lawrence Weschler

Lawrence Weschler

Lawrence Weschler is an author of works of creative nonfiction.A graduate of Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz , Weschler was for over twenty years a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies...

 primarily about The Museum of Jurassic Technology

Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the lower jurassic...

 and more broadly, the history and role of museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

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Contents

The book is divided into two sections, called Inhaling the Spore and Cerebral Growth. Inhaling the Spore focuses on the Museum of Jurassic Technology itself. The author relates his experiences with the museum and its creator, the titular David Hildebrand Wilson

David Hildebrand Wilson

David Hildebrand Wilson is the co-founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology along with his wife, Diana Wilson. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. He received an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 1976. He and his museum are the subject of...

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In Cerebral Growth Weschler goes into greater depth about Wonder Cabinets

Cabinet of curiosities

A cabinet of curiosities was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were yet to be defined. They were also known by various names such as Cabinet of Wonder, and in German Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer...

. "Cerebral growth" is also a pun, as one of the objects of the museum is a human horn

Cutaneous horn

Cutaneous horns, also known by the Latin name cornu cutaneum, are unusual keratinous skin tumors with the appearance of horns, or sometimes of wood or coral. Formally, this is a clinical diagnosis for a "conical projection above the surface of the skin." They are usually small and localized, but...

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Reception

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder was a finalist for the National Book Circle Critics Award for nonfiction and the Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

for general nonfiction.