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Exhibits at Presidential Libraries



I think Sharon Butcher and Dean Debolt are right on track with their observations (although Sharon may deserve a severe talking to for her terrible pun).   I think all the Presidential libraries do an impressive job of letting visitors see the human being that lay behind the presidential persona.   One of the best of these is the Kennedy Library, which largely avoids the trap of just setting out to contribute to Kennedy's hagiography.

Along the lines of what Dean mentioned, one of the most intriguing parts of the FDR Library is their large collection of artifacts sent to the Roosevelt White House during the war.  I am not sure if I would call it art; they mostly consisted of things like models of the Arizona made from scrap metal collected by Boy Scouts.  But the collection really captures just how involved American society as a whole was in the war effort.

FDR also has a wonderful collection of song scores dedicated to FDR and sent to the White House by his supporters.  These didn't work so well visually, but we played around with the idea of getting someone to record a sample as an audio exhibit.  This was for a large National Archives exhibit I worked on about ten years ago where the idea was to try and immerse the visitor into the wartime era using both visual and audio materials.

The FDR and Truman libraries have also done some nice things with their collections of color film footage showing the presidents.  We are all so used to picturing FDR in black and white that it can be really startling to see him in color.  Both the BBC and the German ZDF network have run a series of recent documentaries using similar color footage from World War II.
 

Sincerely,

James H. Lide
Director, International Division
History Associates Incorporated