Weschler Pgs. 75-100

At this point, Weschler has essentially started to talk about the connections to the past that the Museum of Jurassic Technology has with pre-Enlightenment era Europe and the varying interests of technology, sciences, and wonder that other individuals, and now David Wilson, have carried through history and now into the modern age. Going by uncommon texts as his secondary resources, Weschler goes on to relay the information about the many collections of 15^th to mid-16^th century European wonderers, their interests brought about by the rising interests and discoveries in the new world at the time. The thing that struck me about the whole history lesson though was how much of a déjà vu or recurrence it seems to have with the backstory to how Wilson came about his collection. I was rather intrigued with the whole story of the Tradescant father and son duo and their collection that they lost to an Elias Ashmole at the death of the son’s wife by drowning, nearly paralleling the story of Wilson’s Flemish moth collection providers of the Thums, who lost it all to a Gerard Billius. I feel like that sense of astonishment at the similarity between the two providers is exactly the sense of wonder that the Wunderkammern of the past and the MJT now were and are trying to provide to the public. It really grounds their ideals and brings them to life, adding a whole new layer to the effectiveness and human aspect of Wilson’s mission with the MJT.