Bush’s library already filling up
WASHINGTON – We don’t yet know where President Bush’s library will be built. But he’s got lots of stuff for it: thousands of gifts from admirers at home and abroad. How much has been collected, the White House won’t say.
Material kept by the first President George Bush filled two dozen 18-wheelers, which delivered it all to College Station, home of the library complex that opened in 1997 at Texas A&M University.
During a typical month, the incumbent Bush and wife Laura receive an average of 600 items.
The White House Gift Office processes them, penning thank-you notes, weeding out perishable items and cataloging the rest, including birthday cards from well-wishers.
After being sorted, the cache is moved to a Washington-area warehouse of the National Archives and Records Administration and is held in “courtesy storage” for the duration of the presidency.
At the very least, Bush – an avid sportsman who once owned part of the Texas Rangers baseball club – will leave office with an enviable collection of athletic gear from Super Bowl champs, NCAA winners, NASCAR kingpins and Olympic champs. The grip-and-grin photo sessions at the White House usually end with the president getting a personalized team jersey.
Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Baylor University in Waco and the University of Dallas are finalists in the high-stakes competition for the George W. Bush library and archives. The winner will be named later this year or in early 2007.
One of the iconic mementos from the Bush presidency is the bullhorn he used to rally workers in New York three days after the Sept. 11 attacks: “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
That bullhorn already has been featured in a father-and-son exhibit at the A&M Library.
When Bush leaves office, his gifts and papers will be loaded onto cargo planes and carried to the city where the library will be built.
Former President Bill Clinton had 630 tons flown and trucked from Washington to Little Rock, Ark.
Eventually, the most intriguing gifts and artifacts are chosen for display.
Curators showcase items that portray the story, the history and the personality of the president.
The Clinton library includes a display of 10 gift saxophones, samples from his CD collection and video of him as a teenager in the Arkansas All-State Band.
The Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., has in storage thousands of containers of jelly beans, a favorite treat he kept in the Oval Office.
The Boeing 707 that was Air Force One during Reagan’s terms went on display last fall.