TRAIL DRIVE
LIBRARY TRAIL The Lone Star State’s Trio of Archives
PRESIDENTIAL
DENISON •
75 • 20 by KIM PHILLIPS 35
AUSTIN •
• 290 45 21
COLLEGE STATION
10 DALLAS
AUSTIN
austintexas.org
DALLAS
visitdallas.com
COLLEGE STATION
visitaggieland.com
WORK STATION: Lyndon Johnson so much liked the desk provided during his first term (1948–54) in the Senate that when he became Senate majority leader in 1954 he requested a second nearly iden- tical one for that office. He used this desk through his vice presidency and his presidency.
It is now W
on exhibit in the replica Oval Office in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Presidential Museum.
WHICH STATE IN the nation has more presi- dential libraries than any other? You guessed it: Texas, all within a 200-mile radius of one anoth- er. There are currently 13 presidential libraries across the United States — three in Texas, two in California and one each in a handful of other states. These libraries offer an opportunity to explore the history of our nation via vast archives, public programs and interactive exhibits. Since Barack Obama is the 44th president,
you may be wondering why there aren’t more than 13 of these libraries. Until Franklin D. Roosevelt’s term, presidential papers were rou- tinely lost, destroyed or ruined by poor storage conditions, and in some cases even sold for prof-
48 AUTHENTIC TEXAS
it. FDR sought assistance from historians and scholars to develop a repository where historical materials from his presidency would be preserved for future generations. After raising private funds to build a facility, he gave it to the U.S. govern- ment to operate through the National Archives, thus beginning a tradition that continues to this day.
In 1955, Congress passed the Presidential
Libraries Act so all Americans have the oppor- tunity to learn about democracy and the history of our nation as it unfolded from one administra- tion to the next. There’s now a library for every president since the 31st, Herbert Hoover. Texas also has the special distinction that two of our
COURTESY OF LBJ LIBRARY; PHOTO/CHARLES BOGEL
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