Cabinet of Curiosities: Jacob's Wunderkammer Paperback – September 27, 2024

Wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosities, arose in mid-sixteenth-century Europe as repositories for all manner of wondrous and exotic objects. In essence these collections – combining specimens, diagrams, and illustrations from many disciplines; marking the intersection of science and superstition; and drawing on natural, manmade, and artificial worlds – can be seen as the precursors to museums.Working from home over the years, many, many video calls have prompted a polite version of the question: “What exactly is all that junk behind you on those shelves in your office?” The short answer is: too much to explain without derailing this call – space‑flown hardware, early computing components, Cold‑War relics, and other artifacts that I've felt I needed to accumulate.The collection began in the mid 2010's, when I came across a Kickstarter campaign for something called a Mini Museum. I purchased one and was fascinated by all the items floating weightlessly trapped in glass-like acrylic, and by the historical sweep and scope of the artifacts. I could stare at it for ages trying to imagine the journey each had taken to get to me.I ended up buying another, and another, and then found a sample of graphite from the world’s first nuclear reactor embedded in acrylic Lucite. Because of my loose family connection to the Manhattan Project I thought it would be a cool addition, and that was the beginning of this collection.Some of these things were inexpensive, others are priceless. Some are common, of others there are only a handful or even a single one. I have purchased objects at auctions, from other collectors, online, through social media, and from new friends. Sometimes I have hunted down a particular object for years, some I’ve discovered by happenstance. Packages have come from every part of the globe.One day as I was standing in my office pondering the histories of these various little treasures and the many interrelationships between their stories, I realized that nobody other than I would have any idea what they were looking at. I decided to catalogue and document the items; you are considering purchasing the result. Each chapter is chronological, but all are interdependent. If I have succeeded, the whole is more interesting than the sum of its parts.From John Glenn to New Glenn, from Nils Bohr to fusion reactors, and from slide rules to quantum research, come with me on a fun and richly illustrated journey of nearly 300 pages through the history of nuclear war, computing, spaceflight, money and more! Read more