Are dinosaurs really extinct now?
The Academy of Natural Sciences opened its doors to the public in 1828, 198 years ago. This Sunday, September 27, 2026, the museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will close its doors permanently after welcoming visitors for nearly two centuries due to severe financial pressure and decline of visitors. For my family, this closing means much more than saying goodbye to a museum.
As someone with an older autistic brother, I spent many years tagging along on different dinosaur-themed activities at the museum. This past Friday morning, my parents took my brother and me there for our final trip.
The morning began with long lines wrapped around the old building. Children, friends, and families waited eagerly to see the dinosaur bones and exhibits one last time while petitions circulated among the crowd to save the museum.
Then we stepped inside. Once you entered, it truly was like entering a different time.
There was so much history around us. The academy itself was founded as an institution in 1812.
We started in the Botany of Nations, a collection of Indigenous ecological knowledge and the Lewis and Clark expedition. I found myself admiring the flowers, gifts, bags, hats, and other objects on display. I noticed how many things have changed between now and then.
I learned a lot from the journals and materials that were on display. There were maps of plant geolocations, places of worship, food, and so much more. I was in awe of the idea of exploring a whole new world. I think the coolest concept was kincentricity. I appreciated the worldview and concept of being interconnected in a continual cycle. I found myself appreciating the beauty of all sorts of life. I was appreciative of everything from a huge skeleton of a dinosaur to a shell or rock.
However the deeper we got into the dinosaur exhibit, I found myself paying less attention to the fossils and more attention to my brother. As fascinating as all the history in front of my eyes was, watching my brother fill with excitement meant so much more.
We stood next to one another taking in all there was to see. I let him explain all the different kinds of dinosaurs and fossils to me as he excitedly shared fun fact after fun fact. I am always amazed at how much he knows about dinosaurs. For my brother, dinosaurs offer a fascinating, structured, factual system. Their predictable nature can be comforting, and, like many autistic people, my brother finds dinosaurs endlessly fun to explore. The more I looked around, the more I noticed other people also tagging along because someone they loved wanted to be there.
That made me reflect on my own experience. Maybe people don’t go to museums because they like them. Sometimes we go places because someone we love wants to. We may come for our child, friend, a partner, a sibling. We tag along and get to see things we never would have chosen on our own. Somewhere along the way, it becomes a part of our story too. That’s a part of the beauty of a museum. It isn’t just a collection of objects from the past. The museum reflects an active interconnectedness of the past, present, and future. Perhaps that realization is what I will remember most about our final visit. Thank you to the Academy of Natural Sciences for years of great times and dinosaur digging.
Dinosaurs may be extinct but they will always remain cool. And for my family, the memories we made at the Academy will never be forgotten.