Description
The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated on November 6, 1997 and opened to the public shortly thereafter. It was designed by the architectural firm of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum.
The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located on a 90-acre (360,000 m2) site on the west campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The Bush Library and Museum is situated on a plaza adjoining the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service. It operates under the administration of the NARA under the provisions of the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955.
The mission of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is to preserve and make available for research the official records, personal papers and artifacts of President George H.W. Bush, to support democracy, promote civic education and increase historical understanding of our national experience through the life and times of George Bush.
The textual archives contain more than 44 million pages of personal papers and official documents subject to the Presidential Records Act, as well as personal records from associates connected with President Bush's public career as Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. As in all NARA presidential libraries, records are housed in acid-free storage (Hollinger) boxes in a balanced humidity and temperature atmosphere. The archival storage area houses 13,000 cubic feet (370 m3) of records and the library has a National Security vault holding 3,500 cubic feet (99 m3) of Presidential Records. In addition to memoranda, speeches, and reports found in the textual collection, there is an extensive audio-visual and photographic archive that includes approximately 2 million photographs and thousands of hours of audio and video tape.
The museum has just under 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2) of permanent exhibit space and 3,000 square feet (300 m2) of temporary exhibit space. Permanent exhibits draw on the best of the museum collection to visually convey the essence of George Bush's life and public service career and to illustrate historical events of this period in American history. Changing exhibits explore topics on the Bush Administration, American history, American Presidents, etc.
Its classroom is the first of its kind in the Presidential Libraries network. The classroom can be used by student groups as a computer learning lab or as a traditional classroom. It is the Bush Library and Museum's educational mission to inform and enrich learning for all ages about American history, the role of the presidency in general with special focus on the administration of George Bush.
In 2011, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation was rated 1/4 by Charity Navigator, entering the list of "10 Highly Paid CEOs at Low-Rated Charities".
Read more about this topic: George Bush Presidential Library
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