WOLFSONIAN-FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Mitchell Wolfson Jr., heir to a family fortune built on movie theaters, was known as an eccentric, and if you come visit the Wolfsonian your sure to find out why. A premier collector (some might call him pack-rat) of propaganda and advertising art. In addition one can view his hordes of glass, ceramics, metalwork, rare books, periodicals, works on paper, paintings, textiles, medals and other ephemera. Wolfson found himself spending so much money storing his booty that he decided to buy the warehouse that was housing it. It ultimately held more than 70,000 of his items, from controversial Nazi propaganda to King Farouk of Egypt's match collection. Thrown in the eclectic mix are also zany works from great modernists such as Charles Eames and Marcel Duchamp. Eventually the collection was donated to Florida International University. Since then the former 1927 storage facility has been transformed into a museum that is the envy of curators around the world. In today's museum a diverse array of broad themes of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries - nationalism, political persuasion, industrialization, architecture and urbanism, consumerism and advertising, transportation, and world's fairs - are addressed by permanent, temporary, and traveling shows. The museum is unquestionably fascinating and hosts lectures and rather swinging events surrounding particular exhibits most of which focus on key issue in design and design history.
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