Saturday, June 25, 2022

Dinotopia and Smithsonian

Dinotopia and Smithonian have a long history together. Here's some trivia:


• A paleontologist from the National Museum of Natural History, Dr. Michael Brett-Surman, was an early scientific consultant on the project. He and other Smithsonian colleagues dressed up in Dinotopian costumes and came on stage to answer questions after a lecture I gave in Washington. They knew the answer to every question the kids had.


• In September 1995, Dinotopia was featured on the cover of the Smithsonian magazine, together with a behind-the-scenes article. (There are signed copies in my online store.)



• In 2002, the National Museum of Natural History hosted an exhibition of original art from the books.


• The exhibition also included Arthur Denison's original journal of the lost world, complete with chain, lock, and writing in the footprint alphabet, stamped into what appeared to be its saurian leather cover.

3 comments:

Bevan said...

I used to go to the Smithsonian natural history museum every year but sadly I moved away before these exhibits happened. Wish I could have gone.

Terry said...

I love everything about Dinotopia, but that book binding...isn't that a little creepy, seeing as how the dinosaurs are sentient and fully as intelligent and personable as humans? We don't go for human skin-bound books very much...

James Gurney said...

Terry, yeah, I suppose that anthropodermic bibliopegy is pretty rare in our world, but it happened. Maybe in Dinotopia the saurian librarians donated their bodies to the bookbinding arts. Or maybe the covers are plant-based. It did say "appeared to be"...