Presidential Libraries T
HE FIRST presidential library was built to honor Rutherford B. Hayes, the country’s nineteenth
president. Hayes’ son, Webb, and his siblings were the driving force behind the construction of their father’s library. They deeded to the State of Ohio Hayes’ estate and papers, making possible the building of the first US presidential li- brary, which opened in 1916. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to build a presiden- tial library. He announced, halfway through his second term, his plan to build a library to house his presidential documents. Each succeeding president
since Roosevelt has built a personal library with private donations. It is now a common practice to begin planning and raising funds for a presidential library as soon as a new president takes office. Presidential
The steel and glass William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is the most expensive presidential library built to date, but its $165 million price tag is expected to be exceeded by the library being planned to honor President George W. Bush.
libraries are not libraries in the tradi- tional sense. They are a combination of archives and museums. These libraries not only house presidential papers and other administration documents, they also present extensive exhibits chronicling presidents’
lives
in office through photos, films, tapes, and other media. Some libraries even exhibit presidents’ cars or, as in the case of the Reagan library, a decommissioned Air Force One plane.
Seventeen presidential libraries, including the George W. Bush Presidental Library, which is housed in a temporary structure pending the construction of its per- manent site, are in existence today, and all but the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center have been built since the Roosevelt presidency.
Critics of presidential libraries contend the libraries have become far too expensive to build and maintain. When the Roosevelt library opened its doors in Hyde Park, New York, in 1940, its cost was $400,000, or about $6.1 million in today’s dollars. In contrast, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which opened in Simi Val- ley, California, in 1991, cost $57 million to build. The cost of the George Bush Presidential Library and Mu- seum, which opened in College Station, Texas, in 1997, was $80 million and that of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, which opened in Little Rock, Ar- kansas, in 2004, was $165 million. Reports now circulat- ing in Washington put the fund-raising goal for the
successfully argued a landmark right- to-privacy case before the Supreme Court. He also continued to be a player on the international stage, traveling to more than forty countries between 1961 and 1968. He was priming himself for the next chapter in his life.
T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E
George W. Bush Library at $500 million, a figure that includes a $200 million endowment.
The National Archives and Records Administration currently administers thirteen of the seventeen presi- dential libraries. The maintenance costs of these thir- teen libraries are shared by the foundations that built the libraries and the federal government. The four re- maining presidential libraries—of Presidents William McKinley, Rutherford B. Hayes, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson—that are not administered by the Na- tional Archives, are paid for by private foundations, by the states in which the libraries operate, or by a combi- nation of private and state funds. And maintaining these libraries can take millions of dollars each year. The 2006 operating cost of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Li- brary and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, for ex- ample, was $6.1 million and that of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, was $5.7 million.
As a rule, presidential libraries commemorate the accomplishments of the presidents while minimizing, and at times glossing over, their failures. While critics find fault with this, presidential library backers say this is how it should be. They say a presidential library is a place one visits to get a sense of the man elected to lead the world’s most powerful nation and not a place to chronicle his every decision or misstep. That job is best left to historians. —JL
President Nixon The largest grouping of exhibits in the museum is devoted to Nixon’s presidency—1969 to 1974. Found here is a display of gifts—African spears and masks, Middle Eastern scimitars, and Chinese vases and figurines— Nixon received from the heads of
state of the nations he visited while president. Because US laws prohibit presidents from retaining gifts valued at more than $250, many of these valuable items are on loan from the National Archives.
There is also a display illustrating Nixon’s historic trip to China. An
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PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
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