Dinosaur-loving schoolboy opens natural history museum with astonishing fossil collection
A schoolboy from Cambridge, Illinois, USA, who knows way more about ancient life than the average person, has become the world’s youngest person to curate a museum (male).
Anderson Taylor was just nine years 340 days old when he opened the Cambridge Natural History Museum on 10 August 2024, being its sole owner and curator.
It all started in 2022 after a family trip to Scotland.
“When I went to Scotland,” Anderson said, “I went to the Staffin Dinosaur Museum and that’s what inspired me to make this museum. I've been into dinosaurs and fossils all my life.”
As soon as he got back home, he started the long process of turning his dream into a reality. The public also supported Anderson's vision, after he had done presentations to raise awareness and build interest. This resulted in supporters also sending in items for Anderson's growing museum collection.
He said: “I found a building first, after doing tonnes of talks at the Village Office here in town. [The space] used to be the fire station, the village hall, and now it is the museum. After that, they started giving me items to display, display cases, and then after like a month or so we started getting funding.”
At the time of the interview, Anderson has raised $20,000 in funding.
When asked about how he collects his artefacts, he said: “Most of the time it’s actually people that come in and give me some of the rocks, then if I don’t know what they are I ask them if they know.
“Or I take them to an expert, essentially if the expert knows what the rock is, he or she will tell me, or they’ll send it to another expert and then if they still don’t know what it is we classify it as a new thing.”
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Anderson, now 11 years old, is very knowledgeable about the prehistoric life, and his collection of fossils, minerals, gems and taxidermy animals is absolutely museum worthy.
His mum said: “I learn something new from him every day, whenever I talk to him he’s got a new fact to share.”
He loves to teach what he knows to anyone who will listen.
“[A fun fact about minerals is that] the word hematite means blood stone, because if you were to scratch it on something it would turn red. Fluorite, one of my personal favourite gemstones, is the state mineral/gemstone of Illinois. And did you know that most of the fossils that you see in the Illinois fossils case were collected by three-year-old me?”
And when asked about why people should visit his museum, he said: “There is a lot of interactive stuff and people usually get a souvenir to take home with them.”
Anderson knows more than a thing or two about dinosaurs. “[My three favourite dinosaur species are] the Lythronax, that one is a tyrannosaurus or T. rex but taller, slimmer, shorter in length. The second one is called Latenivenatrix, it’s a troodontid, so if you know the dinosaur Troodon, it’s similar to that. The third favourite dinosaur, well, that one would have to be the Gigantspinosaurus which is a stegosaurian, it has lots of spikes.”
So it is no surprise that, when he grows up, he wants to be a palaeontologist. He also said that he wants to have multiple PhDs, in science, biology, archaeology, geology, palaeontology, and even astrobiology. But he still wants to continue curating the museum, as he thinks “it’s such a fun experience.”
His parents, who have always nurtured his curiosity and interests, were more than happy to help him reach his goal.
“Anderson is very persistent,” his dad said. “[…] Ever since we got back from that vacation, he really has never lost sight of that goal of opening his museum. [He] hopes that the museum can exist well beyond his lifetime, which I think is very admirable.”
And when asked about his personality, he added: “He’s also just a very fun and funny kid, he has a great sense of humour, and I think that helps with all of this, he’s great with the public and it’s been fun to watch him grow.
“He absolutely knows more about all of the prehistoric life than I do. I’ve learned a lot from him and just from being around this and helping him.”
His mum added: “I grew up reading the Guinness World Records books as a kid and marvelling at all of those facts, and the fact that I gave birth to a record holder is pretty fantastic!”
Congratulations, Anderson, you are Officially Amazing!