Presidential Museums / Homes / Libraries

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

One of my 2023 resolutions was to travel more within Ohio to see more of the state where I've lived since 1999.  Today I realized that there are seven Presidential museums and birthplaces in the state honoring Wm. H. Harrison, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Taft, and Harding.  So those trips will be my priorities the next couple of months, weather permitting.  There is also the First Ladies National Historic Site in the state which I will try to incorporate as well.

I've visited Mount Vernon (Washington), Monticello (Jefferson) and Ash Lawn (Monroe) and was wondering which other ones are favorites of others that I should add to my list.  Suggestions?   

[+ Charlie]

I used to go to the Presidential museums and libraries, too, but the only one  in Ohio was Rutherford Hayes. I enjoyed the Coolidge in VT, Eisenhower in KS, Truman, in MO, Carter in GA, Reagan in CA, Nixon in CA, Hoover in IA, and Johnson in TX.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Charlie

[keefer]

I've always been fond of Sagamore Hill -- it was Theodore Roosevelt home and the summer white house.   It was biking distance from home when I was quite young, and thus almost always a destination during the summer months...  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagamore_Hill

 

[+ Lucky]

I've been to the Kennedy library, and also the Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. I thought that the Ford Museum made him out to be far greater than is the general consensus.

Nixon is buried at the museum grounds, so you can see the site.

[+ Charlie]

15 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I've been to the Kennedy library, and also the Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. I thought that the Ford Museum made him out to be far greater than is the general consensus.

Nixon is buried at the museum grounds, so you can see the site.

The Hoovers are also buried in the garden at his library in West Branch, IA. Interestingly, Harry Truman joined Hoover at the dedication of the library and museum.

[Luv2play]

I just read Gore Vidal's essay on Eleanor Roosevelt, which ends with her burial beside FDR at Hyde Park. Is there a museum for FDR there?

[+ WilliamM]

On 1/6/2023 at 11:59 AM, Charlie said:

The Hoovers are also buried in the garden at his library in West Branch, IA. Interestingly, Harry Truman joined Hoover at the dedication of the library and museum.

When Truman became president Hoover was the only living former president. The two men became good friends.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

On 1/7/2023 at 5:19 PM, Luv2play said:

I just read Gore Vidal's essay on Eleanor Roosevelt, which ends with her burial beside FDR at Hyde Park. Is there a museum for FDR there?

I've been to the FDR presidential library in Hyde Park.  It is at the site of the boyhood home of FDR, which is a large estate next to the Hudson River.  It is worth a visit if you are in the area.

I've also been to Reagan in CA, and Nixon in CA.

Reagan's in CA has a full scale replica of the Oval Office, and a retired Air Force One airplane that you can walk through, outfitted how it was in the 80s/90s.

I will definitely visit any Presidential Library, regardless of the president's political party, whenever I am visiting a location near one.

[CJK]

The Carter Library is close to my house. I have been there many times.

The Carters have an apartment in the Library. A few years ago, my house was broken into. Several police officers responded and were actually gathering evidence and dusting for fingerprints. There was an APD police officer who the neighborhood association hired to provide security in his off hours who also responded. Suddenly the officers were having a meeting in my living room. The officer who handled the neighborhood security patrol told me the Carters' bicycles had been stolen and most of the officers had to go over there to investigate. They were trying to decide which officers could stay at my house and which had to go to the Carter Library. None of the officers wanted go there because working with Secret Service meant lots of extra paperwork!

[+ Charlie]

2 hours ago, Vegas_nw1982 said:

I've been to the FDR presidential library in Hyde Park.  It is at the site of the boyhood home of FDR, which is a large estate next to the Hudson River.  It is worth a visit if you are in the area.

I've also been to Reagan in CA, and Nixon in CA.

Reagan's in CA has a full scale replica of the Oval Office, and a retired Air Force One airplane that you can walk through, outfitted how it was in the 80s/90s.

I will definitely visit any Presidential Library, regardless of the president's political party, whenever I am visiting a location near one.

It was so long ago that I forgot about visiting the FDR library at Hyde Park with a school group when I was a teenager.

[+ nycman]

2 minutes ago, Charlie said:

It was so long ago that I forgot about visiting the FDR library at Hyde Park with a school group when I was a teenager.

Wait, I thought FDR was still president when you were a teenager.

grin

[+ Charlie]

2 minutes ago, nycman said:

Wait, I thought FDR was still president when you were a teenager.

grin

Well, he WAS President when I was born, but not when I was a teenager. And Eleanor was not buried there then, because she was still alive when I was in college.

Edited January 10, 2023 by Charlie

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I forgot that I've been to the Truman Little White House in Key West.  It is very interesting.

[Luv2play]

1 hour ago, sam.fitzpatrick said:

I forgot that I've been to the Truman Little White House in Key West.  It is very interesting.

I read in his biography that Truman actually had no home he could call his own. The Little White House in Key West was in fact a naval installation.

When he left the big White House he went back to his mother-law's house which he eventually acquired through his wife Bess. Probably the last president to not have enriched himself with the office.

[Luv2play]

I take it back. I don't think Jimmie Carter profited from the presidency either.

[+ Charlie]

22 hours ago, Luv2play said:

I take it back. I don't think Jimmie Carter profited from the presidency either.

Well, I don't think all his books would have sold much if he hadn't been President.

[+ WilliamM]

22 hours ago, Charlie said:

Well, I don't think all his books would have sold much if he hadn't been President.

Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Ford wrote books as well. I wrote about 20th century presidents  in graduate school at Penn State.

[+ Charlie]

41 minutes ago, WilliamM said:

Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Ford wrote books as well. I wrote about 20th century presidents  in graduate school at Penn State.

I'm sure you read a number of books ABOUT Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Ford, but they were not written BY those men in order to make money for themselves. Carter has written several books since leaving the office of President, for which he has been well paid. Many of the books that are advertised as "by Harry Truman," for example, are simply compilations by other authors and editors based on Truman's private papers and letters, and often published after he was dead. Ford often made speeches after leaving office, for which he was well paid, and they were sometimes published, but he wrote very little.

[Luv2play]

I suppose Carter did make some money from his books which he actually wrote himself.  I bought one of them, which I  remember was about Israel. While it dealt with his achievements I seem to remember, it was also very critical about developments following his prrsidency. It made him somewhat of an embarrasment to his party as I recall. 

[+ WilliamM]

51 minutes ago, Charlie said:

I'm sure you read a number of books ABOUT Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Ford, but they were not written BY those men in order to make money for themselves. Carter has written several books since leaving the office of President, for which he has been well paid. Many of the books that are advertised as "by Harry Truman," for example, are simply compilations by other authors and editors based on Truman's private papers and letters, and often published after he was dead. Ford often made speeches after leaving office, for which he was well paid, and they were sometimes published, but he wrote very little.

Next time please some better research on Truman my friend. Also, Truman was a far better president than Carter

[+ Charlie]

Yes, Truman did write his own two volume Memoirs, but it was written for a scholarly audience and most reviewers thought it was too long and boring for a popular audience; it never made a best-seller list. When it was eventually re-issued years later, an editor cut out almost half of the original material to make it saleable. The majority of the money-making books were written by others, like Merle Miller and David McCullough, about him and his administration. Eisenhower's only best-selling memoir, Crusade in Europe, was written before he became President.

Yes, Milton Eisenhower was president of Penn State for several years--he was also president of Kansas State and Johns Hopkins--but how is that relevant to this topic? The question was about which Presidents used the title to enrich themselves.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Charlie

[+ WilliamM]

15 minutes ago, Charlie said:

Yes, Truman did write his own two volume Memoirs, but it was written for a scholarly audience and most reviewers thought it was too long and boring for a popular audience; it never made a best-seller list. When it was eventually re-issued years later, an editor cut out almost half of the original material to make it saleable. The majority of the money-making books were written by others, like Merle Miller and David McCullough, about him and his administration. Eisenhower's only best-selling memoir, Crusade in Europe, was written before he became President.

Yes, Milton Eisenhower was president of Penn State for several years--he was also president of Kansas State and Johns Hopkins--but how is that relevant to this topic? The question was about which Presidents used the title to enrich themselves.

Eisenhower's books  his presidency was issued in two volumes afew years after he left the White House

My advisor at Penn State, Ruth Silva, was a close friend ofMilton Eisenhower's. 

I don't remember anyone writing that Truman's books on his presidency  wee written for a scholarly audience

[+ Charlie]

This part of the thread on Presidential libraries started with @Luv2play commenting that Truman was the last President not to enrich himself through his holding of the office. Then he backtracked and said that Carter should be added to that list. I pointed out that Carter made money by writing books after he left office, that sold largely on his fame as a former President. Then you countered that other Presidents also wrote books; however, I  tried to stay on topic by responding that the books didn't make them much money. The fact that you studied books that were written by those Presidents, and that you thought Truman was a better President than Carter, may be true, but they don't seem relevant to the question of whether or not a President enriched himself after leaving office. At least you did remove the post in which you brought up the fact that Milton Eisenhower was president of Penn State, which didn't seem relevant to anything. But, of course, this whole topic has gotten sidetracked anyway from the subject of Presidential libraries, which are interesting in themselves.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I would argue that Kennedy's assassination prevented him from profiting from his term in office.

Can we now return to discussing the topic of this thread?  Homes, libraries, and museums of the presidents?

[Luv2play]

Living in Canada I have never made it a priority to visit the presidential museums established after their tenure in office. If I were to undertake such a pilgrimage I would visit FDR's, JFK's, Nixon's and Reagan's.

Here in Canada we don't make it a practice to establish museums for past prime ministers. But one former pm, Mackenzie King (a contemporary of FDR) has two museums in his honour, one his former residence in Ottawa (Laurier House) which he inherited from Sir Wilfred Laurier's widow (Laurier was Canada's first French Canadian pm and hired King to work in the government) and Kingsmere, his estate north of Ottawa in the Gatineau hills.

Both places offer a fascinating insight into a public figure who had an intensely private life (he never married). His diaries were published after his death and revealed a lot about this man who was the longest serving prime minister in Canadian history (he was in office longer than FDR) starting in the early 1920's and retiring in 1948 with a time out of 5 years during the Great Depression.