Synthetic Amber with Trapped Insect from Jurassic Park: Museum Object and Cultural History
Synthetic Amber with Trapped Insect from Jurassic Park: date made: 1993. Object Name: Synthetic Amber. Physical Description: resin (overall material).
The object in the museum catalogue
Prop amber used in the 1993 film Jurassic Park. In the film, scientist and entrepreneurs open a wildlife theme park and preserve and use cutting edge genetics to breed and grow dinosaurs, which escape and cause havoc in the park. The ancient mosquito encased in amber and the dinosaur blood the mosquito would have sucked on, became an early source of DNA that is spliced and cloned to eventually breed a real dinosaur.
Although fictional, the film brought to life the rapid advances of genetic sciences but also stoked the publics fear of what this new science, if kept unchecked, would have on the world.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 1993
- Object Name: Synthetic Amber
- Physical Description: resin (overall material)
- Physical Description: plaster (overall material)
- Physical Description: resin, plastic, paint, plastic (overall material)
- Physical Description: molded (overall production method/technique)
- Physical Description: geoligcal (overall shape)
- Measurements: average spatial: 5.1 cm x 7.6 cm x 14.6 cm; 2 in x 3 in x 5 3/4 in
- Measurements: overall: 5 3/4 in x 3 in x 2 in; 14.605 cm x 7.62 cm x 5.08 cm
- Subject: Motion Pictures
- ID Number: 1993.0428.01
- catalog number: 1993.0428.01
- accession number: 1993.0428
- Credit Line: Gift of MCA, Universal City Studios, Inc.
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
Sources
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