George H.W. Bush ~ June 12, 1924 - November 30, 2018

41st President, 1989 - 1993

We visited the George H.W. Bush Library Center last spring and it is fairly interesting, considering his long career in politics. The Center is located on the campus of Texas A & M University, 1000 George Bush Dr W, College Station, Texas. This is a sampling of things we found in the museum.
There are lots of photo opps 😊
Oval Office
A gate from Kuwait
The Situation Room
Several artifacts from a 2023 exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Library is situated on a beautiful part of the campus. We wandered outside on our way to his gravesite. This sculpture is entitled "A Monument to Freedom" by Veryl Goodnight and celebrates the falling of the Berlin Wall.

The pathway to the gravesite.
There's a lovely lagoon between the gravesite and the library.
George H.W. Bush had a few firsts while President, including being the first president to have been a naval aviator, the first to have served as CIA director, and the first president to have received a Distinguished Flying Cross.

He is one of 15 Vice Presidents to become President and one of four to become President immediately after serving as Vice President due to winning the election (the others being John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Van Buren). Biden and Nixon both became President later on and Ford became President upon Nixon's resignation. Eight others became President due to the death of the then President.

The library is not the most convenient to get to being 3 hours south of Dallas, 2 hours east of Austin and 1 1/2 hours northeast of Houston. But George H.W. Bush had a long career and a long life, and his library reflects that.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gerald R. Ford ~ July 14, 1913 - December 26, 2006

Image
38th President 1974 - 1977 Ford sites we've visited: The house no longer stands but Ford's birth site was made into a beautiful park. 3202 Woolworth Ave, Omaha Nebraska 630 Rosewood, Grand Rapids MI Ford lived here from 1922-1923 but the historic sign at his next boyhood home ignores this site. 649 Union, Grand Rapids MI (sign says 1921-1930) 330 Washington, Grand Rapids MI Ford lived here with his wife, Betty, from 1948-1950. Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., Ford was called Gerald R. Ford Jr. after his mother's re-marriage to Gerald R. Ford, Sr in 1917. Ford was never formally adopted by his step-father and he didn't legally change his name until 1935. Ford is the only Eagle Scout to have become President. He is also the only president to date to have his library and museum in two different places. Ann Arbor, Michigan, has his library with a small first floor exhibit open to the public. Some historical correspondence and photos are displayed beneath the glass topped office
Read more

John Tyler ~ March 29, 1790 - January 18, 1862

Image
10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler has so many 'firsts' as president. To begin with he was the first Vice President to assume the Presidency upon the death of a President (William Henry Harrison). Congress thought he just assumed the powers of the Presidency but Tyler insisted that he had become the President. It's been the precedent ever since. A Vice Presidential portrait and a ribbon from his presidential campaign, from a 2023 exhibit in the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tyler purchased the Sherwood Forest Plantation in Charles City, Virginia, in 1842 and it has stayed in his family ever since. We visited in 2021 but found an appointment was needed for a house tour. Being on a road trip, there was no way we could do this. Maybe next time. This is the only private residence to have been owned by two unrelated U.S. Presidents. William Henry Harrison inherited the estate in 1790, sold it in 1793, and never lived there.  His favorite horse, General, is bu
Read more

Abraham Lincoln ~ February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865

Image
16th President 1861 - 1865 These are the Lincoln sites we've visited so far.  Birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky Boyhood home, Knob Creek Farm, Hodgenville, Kentucky Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City IN Kentucky Panel (1809-1816) Indiana Panel (1816-1830) Illinois Panel (1830-1861) Washington D.C. Panel (1861-1865) And Now He Belongs to the Ages Panel There's a small exhibit inside the building. The cabin site We walked the Trail of Twelve Stones. And lastly we visited the space in which Abe's mother, Nancy, is buried. Westport, Illinois has a monument celebrating Lincoln crossing into Illinois from Indiana in 1830. Dixon, Illinois claims the honor of having the only statue of Lincoln in uniform. It commemorates his 1832 service in the Black Hawk war. But there's another statue that honors Lincoln's service in the Black Hawk War, located in Pearl City, Illinois. It stands in the same park as the Black Hawk Historic Monument. This is a Thomas Lincoln
Read more