A Behind-the-Scenes Peek at the Smithsonian’s New Dinosaur Hall
The museum is giving its ancient animals a modern makeover.
As I walk into the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s partially reassembled dinosaur hall, the first thing I notice is a Diplodocus peeking out at me. Its long neck cranes out from behind a cutout of a Jurassic tree, and its 150-million-year-old skull is angled in an almost cheeky way. “Oh hi,” it seems to say. “It’s you. Welcome.”
The famous 107-year-old hall closed down in 2014 for a five-year renovation, and is set to reopen in June 2019. When I visited it , it was cavernous and mostly empty. Now it’s a hive of activity, and a labyrinth
