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Father Magin's Pillow

Father Magin's Pillow

One of the founders of the Santa Clara Franciscan monastery, Father Magin Català is said to have foreseen the coming of the Anglo-Americans, the railroad, the discovery of gold and the 1906 earthquake and fire, in dreams that came while he slept on his adobe pillow. This chair-sized pillow, fabricated from adobe with flakes of gold, steel particles and ash, alludes to those dreamlike prognostications of history. It is a playful element in the California Room, an area otherwise dedicated to serious historical research.

Location: California Room on the Fifth Floor