Mr. Speaker, the presidential libraries of the United States
William J. Clinton Library and Museum in Little Rock, Ark.
I “met” presidential candidate Bill Clinton on March 23, 1992, at the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn., where he was campaigning the day before the Connecticut primary.
That weekend, I was in the Constitution State visiting a boyhood friend from Maine who worked at Electric Boat. I dropped him off and hung around for Clinton’s brief remarks. Before he spoke, Clinton was milling about inside a small variety store, saying little but dutifully signing posters on the wall and campaign flyers handed to him, including mine.
I thought of that Clinton connection in late January, when I visited the William J. Clinton Library and Museum in Little Rock, Ark., en route to my final destination in Austin, Texas.
Presidential theme
It’s some 1,600 miles from Stay Apparel Co.’s hometown in Hershey, Pa., to Austin. I opted to drive the biggest chunk on the first day, Thursday, getting to Nashville in 11 hours (most of them spent on just two highways, interstates 81 and 40).
Yet while the Clinton Library would come on Day 2, a presidential theme began to emerge when I got to Virginia. Near Staunton, I noted the highway sign for the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, honoring a native son who served as the 28th American president.
Four hours later, still on Interstate 81 near Greeneville, Tenn., I passed a sign for the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, including the one-time home of the man who became the 17th president upon Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.
Just east of Nashville, by now on Interstate 40, came markers for the Hermitage homestead of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president.
The Wilson, Johnson and Jackson sites had to wait for another time if I was going to stay on schedule, however. I was chasing daylight and barely beat closing time at Imogene + Willie, a must-see Made in USA retailer that operates from an old service station in Nashville.
National Archives oversees
On the road early on Friday, by early afternoon I was standing in front of a more historically significant gas station, the Magnolia Mobil across the street from Little Rock Central High School. Built in 1927, it was dubbed “America’s Most Beautiful High School” by the American Institute of Architects.
Three decades later, it was the site of forced desegregation, three years after the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in “Brown vs. Board of Education,” which found that segregation by race in public schools was unconstitutional.
President Dwight Eisenhower sent the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to escort nine black students to class in a showdown with Arkansas Gov. Orville Faubus.
From the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, I drove three miles northeast to the Clinton library. Opened in 2004, the library cantilevers over the Arkansas River, an homage to Clinton’s campaign vow to “build a bridge to the 21st century.”
Clinton library
View from the third floor.
Chronicling Clinton’s life before, during and after his presidency, the library boasts the largest archives of the 13 existing presidential libraries operated by the National Archives and Records Administration.
These include the libraries of John F. Kennedy in Boston; Harry S Truman in Independence, Mo.; and Lyndon B. Johnson in Austin, which I had visited previously. (Other presidential libraries, such as Wilson’s, are under the auspices of other organizations or states.)
Brush with Bushes
Although I was eager to get to Austin on Day 3, I headed out before sunrise so I could put a checkmark next to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas.
As with Clinton, I had a memorable brush with Bush and his father, President George H. W. Bush, whose administrations bookended Clinton’s. We were visiting my sister in my native Maine in July 2007, not far from the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport.
That Saturday, a group of boats suddenly appeared just off the rocky coast. One stood out for its larger size and its occupants: presidents Bush, wearing zip jackets and soft ball caps, fishing along with the younger Bush’s daughter Laura.
President George W. Bush’s library, which opened in 2013, is on the campus of Southern Methodist University. It will be the final resting place for the president and his wife, Laura, a point that a library guide emphasized as she walked me to the windows overlooking the rose garden.
Bush library
You can have your picture taken at the Resolute Desk in the replica Oval Office.
It struck me how much their respective libraries reflect their presidential styles: a deep dive into policies and programs for the wonky Clinton, a breezier reflection for the go-with-his-gut Bush but with a heavy emphasis on 9/11 and the war on terror.
One of the Bush exhibits honors “Tee Ball on the South Lawn,” which he introduced in 2001 to encourage fitness and promote the national pastime. Of the 54 baseballs signed by some of the greats, I noted to the man next to me that I most coveted the one bearing the signatures of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
“And both on the sweet spot, too,” the man said, describing where the seams on the ball are closest.
Both the Clinton and Bush libraries feature replicas of the Oval Office. While you can only peek into the former, you can have your photo taken sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Bush version.
One other noticeable way in which the Bush library impressed me: Most of the items in the library store are made in the USA, from Sharpies (Bush’s favorite writing instrument) to T-shirts, baseball hats to baseball bats, pewter to leather works.
Baseballs and bats are among the many Made in USA products sold at the Bush library store.
With each visit to a presidential library, I feel a greater understanding of the men who have occupied the White House and a deeper appreciation for the enormity of the job.
Thus, my campaign will press on, with more stops planned at presidential libraries and museums around the United States.