James Perry Wilson (August 13, 1889 - August 12, 1976) was an American, painter, designer, and architect best known for his natural history dioramas. Active for over 40 years, he is noted for his work with the American Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and the Boston Museum of Science. Life and career James Perry Wilson was born in Newark, New Jersey, the youngest of six children only three of which lived into adulthood. Wilson attended Newark public schools. Even though he began painting early in his life, he never took formal painting classes, instead learning painting techniques from a family friend. Wilson attended Columbia University, graduating with an architecture degree in 1914. Thereafter he found work as a draftsman and designer for the architectural firm, Bertram Goodhue Associates. Wilson’s training as an architect influenced his diorama painting technique; he focused on careful observation of source material, illusionistic representation of three dimensions, and mathematical precision. The Great Depression brought Wilson’s architecture career to an end in 1932. In 1933 he met an employee of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), who encouraged him to show his landscape paintings to the director of diorama construction, James L. Clark. Clark was interested at once, but asked for the opinion of the diorama painter, William R. Leigh, who approved of Wilson's work. Wilson was subsequently hired in 1934 as an apprentice diorama painter at the AMNH. Wilson began working in the African Hall under Leigh's supervision, though Leigh severed his connection with the museum shortly thereafter, leaving Wilson responsible for subsequent dioramas. Wilson painted a total of eleven backgrounds in the African Hall of the American Museum of Natural History before moving to the North American Mammal Hall, where he painted several dioramas and established a reputation as a talented artist among the museum’s administration. During World War II, diorama work slowed at the AMNH. Wilson was given an 18-month leave of absence from 1944 to 1945 to paint three dioramas for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. He returned to full time work at the AMNH in 1946. From 1943 to 1955, Wilson wrote and illustrated a monthly astronomy article for a young adult audience in Junior Natural History Magazine, published by the AMNH and for the science series, "The World We Live In", published by "Life Magazine". Later career and death In 1957, after painting