08/12/2026
Last year when I rode my bike 2,500 miles across the country, one of the highlights of that ride was getting to meet Anderson Taylor.
At the time he was 10 years old and lived in Cambridge, Illinois. He started his own Natural History Museum there in Cambridge.
It was so cool talking to him and seeing the museum that he had built as a nine-year-old (actually on my birthday, August 10th in 2024).
I haven't stopped thinking about Anderson and the example he's set for kids and youth of what purpose, and finding purpose, looks like. He’s an inspiration to me and I’m sure to many in his community.
Congratulations Anderson for your Guinness World Record of becoming the youngest person to start a museum.
If any of you are ever driving near the Quad Cities in the Illinois-Iowa area or driving from Indiana to the Quad Cities or Iowa, I would highly recommend that you make a stop in Cambridge.
-Travis
Four years after Anderson Taylor began collecting specimens, he opened the Cambridge Natural History Museum in Cambridge, Illinois, offering school tours and attracting visitors from across the region
