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Raison D’être is Reason Enough To Visit the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

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Tony Maples Photography

 

A visit to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin can be a wonderful way to learn about history in the present, regardless of your partisanship. Having recently (2012) undergone a substantial redesign, the library reopened with reimagined exhibits and displays, making its facility (one of the 14 presently administered by the National Archives and Records Administration) a fascinating journey through a powerful and significant time in American history.

Raison D’être is Reason Enough To Visit the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

Photo: Facebook/Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

Texas is home to three presidential libraries: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, George W. Bush Presidential Library in Lewisville, and Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin. That’s the most out of any State in America! Between them, they share the raison d’être of capturing the historical importance of key events or moments in time during that president’s term(s) in office and sculpt extremely interesting packages of facts and artifacts together for visitors to glean from it what they will.

Raison D’être is Reason Enough To Visit the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

Photo: Facebook/Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

When the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidentially Library and Museum first opening in Austin in 1971, it was an extremely big deal! Both Johnson himself, as well as then-President Richard Nixon, were present for its dedication. Those who were political history buffs would make the trip to the University of Texas at Austin to visit the LBJ Library and not only feel enlightened but almost completely renewed in patriotism – so strong was the sense of pride in country as well as in state. At the time, the facility had free admission, but since its reopening, it began to charge for entrance in 2013.

Raison D’être is Reason Enough To Visit the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

Photo: Facebook/Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

Although the library occupies fourteen acres on the UT campus at Austin, it’s a federally-run institution operating independent of the university. A recent visit will give visitors access to such amazing exhibits as “Sixty from the ’60s,” featuring a record of the monumental events coupled with the pop culture of that time which continues to fascinate people to this day. And this is just one of many of such a broad scope and nature that it’s a veritable treasure chest of diversity in information and topics. From the 1968 black stretch limousine that greets you at the entrance to the replica of the Oval Office (with three televisions installed to broadcast from the only networks that were available back then). The visuals are on par with the content, to say the least, and the Johnson’s (Lyndon and Lady Bird) love of Texas was clearly apparent during his time in office, as tumultuous a period as that may have been in American history. It’s an experience that’s well worth the trip to Austin, and the time to experience all that is the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidentially Library and Museum.

Sources:

Kay Confidential

Wikipedia

LBJ Library