Author of president ial libraries. The National Archives in washington hosted this hourlong event. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to welcome you and our good friends from cspan to the mcgowan theater located in the National Archive theater in washington d. C. I am the Visitor Services manager and producer of the lecture series. Before we begin todays program, i would like to remind you of other programs taking place at this location in the near future. Thursday,vening on march 30 at 7 30 p. M. , the state of alaska is sponsoring a performance of the Alaska Chamber group. As the state celebrates this centennial of williams purchase of america. On thursday, we will presenting a panel discussion, 100 years world war i in the wake of sacrifice with the discussion will be centered around the new National World war i memorial that will be billed in pershing. Ark theind out more about programs, you can visit our website. Dr. Jody is an associate professor of theater in the department of theater, colombian arts and science at washington orversity in a served as number professional productions at area theaters. For larger focus is on strengthening communities through adaption performance. It to this end, she has created events and productions in a wide variety of settings. Her previous book, performing last through theater and writing showing how theaters can use performance through theater and grief. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of text and performance quarterly. She holds a ba in english ma inture and an communication studies. She is a trained facilitator and before joining the faculty at gw, she was associate professor leader and dance in Missouri State university. Please join me in welcoming jody can tour to the National Archives. [applause] jody thank you. Im happy to be here. The setting is washington d. C. It is winter of 1938. The curtain opens on an office, but not just any office, this one is so famous that it has its very own name. Recognized around the world as a place of power the oval office. Seated inside the office is president franklin roosevelt, who is worrying about history. This is a very practice for which the office was designed. He is not worried about sheep in the context of history, but about shaping Public Access to it. He is worried about whether on everyof citizens part of the land will have access to the Historical Documents of this time and place to the story of what we have. Ived he was to answer the question differently than has been before. Roosevelt is perhaps one of the first highranking politician to bury about Public Access to president ial history in this way. Roosevelt is not a selfless man. Secure a place in the nation in the world. But roosevelt also be done to develop a critical consciousness about the relationship between history and power. He has begun to understand the problems with the prevailing approach to history that howard influential he articulated 40 years later. The past is told from the point of view of government, comfort, diplomats, leaders. Columbus, one in universal acceptance, as if they ,ome of the Founding Fathers justices of the supreme court, represent the nation as a whole. Traditional forms of public history, roosevelt recognizes, promote patriotism, but they also underrepresented, and misrepresent, those that lack the money to make themselves heard. President roosevelt and his advisers for the First National leaders to act on this emerging awareness of the narrowness of American Public history. They took important steps to embed within the federal government an approach to public historic. Expanding in effort such as a Historic Building camera Progress Administration of citizen president sand the initiative, commission the first president ial library to preserve the primary sources of American History. In making his president ial materials publicly available, roosevelt explicitly affirmed the historic value of broad, faith, for claiming his the capacity of americas own people, so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future. And, at the librarys a small ceremony to which he invited the facilitys in thers through an ad local newspaper, roosevelt speculated about the future generations of america would be grateful for his foresight. Share thatd to passage directly from my book because it is really the beginning. Here is an image that you can find on the website and the fdr library. It is of the dedication of this first library. Was a Community Event in a very real sense. I wanted to tell you a little bit for those who do not know about the structure that roosevelt set up by which president ial libraries would be governed. Roosevelt,rk is that and in the future, his president ial foundation and the foundations of other president would raise the money to build the library and would oversee its first display. Dedication ceremony at that very moment, the administration of the library would be transferred to the National Archives. And that arrangement has had, i think, a democratizing influence on these institutions, the Public Institutions of the president ial library. And i think that democratizing impulse is probably no where more glaringly demonstrated then at the Nixon Library. As some of you may know, the Nixon Library originally opened federal system and desk system. And there ensued with the formal director of the president ial libraries is called the 30 years two factions represented by nixons two coursers fought in the in the courts and elsewhere about whether or not this library was going to become part of the National Library system. So, 30 years later, that fight was won by the faction that once it it to be a part of the system, and the condition upon which that change was made was, that there had to be a broader there had to be a watergate exhibit in the new library. Director of the library under the federal system there were directors before, but this director was appointed by the National Archives. They set about doing just that. I am this exhibit just showing you a very small piece of a wall length exhibit. I wanted to show you this piece so you could see it in a little more detail. , if it can beit criticized i would say it can thely be criticized on basis on sharing an overwhelming amount of information. Injured on the other side so it aired on the other side in really giving a very extensive history of this very complex event of the watergate scandal. In addition to this full wall that you see here, there is also a series of monitors on which you can pull up oral history material and a film. It is a very large exhibit. And this sort of democratizing influence of the National Archives has continued. And i would say with great hope, it has become stronger, i think. Libraryple, the reagan i believe it was 20 years. Is that right . Summer between 10 and 20 years to redo its exhibit so that it gave a full accounting of the irancontra scandal. So that was a significantly shorter amount of time than it took to create this watergate exhibit. And in the Clinton Library opened with the impeachment story as part of the library. So they didnt even realize think about not having it there. Hope for it to become more robustly represented over time, and i expect that will happen, but it was there when. Xhibit opened so, i am going to talk to you about some displays within the museums that i think illustrates this inclusive, and sort of democratic ideal of the president ial libraries. This is a favorite exhibit of mine from the Carter Library. This was not in the original Carter Library. This exhibit resulted from a renovation that they did in 2009, which was 13 years after the library opened. And one of the large changes in the new exhibit was a very expanded exhibit on carters very early years. And as you can see from the heading on the site there, this exhibit really focused on the hiscanamericans in community that were extremely influential in his early years. Not only did it do that in passing, but it actually shared, as you can see, images of those will. It gained those people it nameed those people it named those people and really thezed carters from this he gained intimacy with people who were different from him. This is not a display, but this is the outside of the Clinton Library. WasClinton Library consciously modeled after the slogan of his reelection campaign, which was a bridge to the 21st century. Can a little bit tell here, the building looks like a bridge. And most important, it looks like an unfinished bridge with out overf it working the arkansas out over the arkansas river. The idea in clinton speeches, and the idea that is embodied in the building, and in a lot of the displays was that, we all had a role in building and finishing the bridge. So, the display is inside the library and emphasizes a number of different ways, for example, the Clinton Library has the most extensive exhibit on the vice presidency of any of the libraries. It also highlights his relationship with nelson mandela. There are a number of different ways in which it emphasizes working together. Actually, before we talk about wantisitors experience, i to talk about a couple of other different a couple of other displays and other libraries. The first one i want to mention, but i do not have an image of it is at the Hoover Library in west branch, iowa. The Hoover Library has what, for me, is perhaps the most moving i guess you would call it a display a video of the libraries. And that is a video that has its own little space in the library. It shows excerpts from oral with peoplenducted who were children in the first world war, and who were influenced in profound ways by hoovers humanitarian work. And getting to hear these voices of ordinary people talking about the impact of his prepresident ial work on their lives is very moving. The details are still with me. It was very many years ago that i visited the Hoover Library, but there is a man who talked about the smell of the hoover rolls when he first smelled them, and how revolutionary that smell was for him. Somebody else who talked about being a lot at his own plate by the humanitarian effort, and the amazing experience of having his very own plate. The other one i wanted to mention, which i think is perhaps surprising, is in the Eisenhower Library. The Eisenhower Library is the only president ial library, so far, that dedicates space to communities of people who were struggling during the eisenhower years, during the president ial years. And that exhibit the Eisenhower Library is called simply the other america. So, there is a largest lay on the 1950s, and all of the new joys ofns and cultural the 1950s. But in the next room, there is this large panel titled the other america. Which begins with the sentence that is Something Like not all americans shared in the boom times. It talks about three or four specific communities that really struggled during his presidency. I want to talk next about two in two live experiences different president ial libraries, which i think contribute to this sense of civic participation. In the first is george bush library, and it is theater. Gulf war and it is the only examples of four in the president ial libraries of an immersive exhibit. Walks into this space, sits on one of these crates that you see in the foreground of the photograph, and listens to the voices of soldiers who fought in the war, being played very short snippets, sort of like a collage of these voices, talking about their food experiences. And what you cannot see in the photograph is that the lights shift while youre sitting there to eliciting while you are sitting there listening. The space in the center of the photograph looks like it may be a whole is actually a screen. But that screen shows images from the war, and very closeup, and somewhat extracted images. So you are not looking at tv , footage of the gulf war, you are really looking at evocative imagery taken from the news footage. Um, so this exhibit, i think, tolly encourages the visitor stay put for a while, and experience and a number of different sensory and physical ways, what it might have been like to be a part of that conflict. The second one i want to talk about is not an immersive experience, but an unusual librarys way of dealing with the legacy of a president. So, i should pause here and say that the president ial libraries are structured in similar ways. And that structure is more or less chronological. You know, you walk through an years, beenhe early there prepresident ial career, then there president ial years, been there postpresidency, and then their legacy. And i that are interested in how one represents a legacy. And this i thought was such an participatory, though not in the sense of the george bush library, but way of doing it. Exhibit is called lbj and you. And it talks about the ways in which lbjs presidency continues to act upon our lives and our bodies today. You can see big bird right in this photograph. And there is a question next to that photograph that says, have you ever watched Public Television . If you have watched Public Television than you have been , influenced by this legacy. Two images down from big word there is a boy buckling himself in with a seatbelt. The text says have you ever used a seatbelt . So, it is a really into meant it is a really intimate, and a makingrsonal way of about how leadership affects ordinary people. So, i will end with a few ideas about how i think the libraries can do better. And then i am happy to take whatever questions you might have. Librariesthat the can do and this is something i , should say that museums in general struggle with, is to bring in a more diverse visitorship. When i spoke with sam mcclure, who was at the time, the Deputy Director of the National Archives, i asked him why is it that you have not done any studies of who comes to the libraries demographically . And he said, it is because we do not need a survey to know how old and white we are. Issue that the archives is aware of, and many other museums are aware of. And i think there are a couple besidesto come at that, public programming, which is beyond the scope of what i am talking about today. Displays, to create re the ones that i have mentioned, where people see citizens who look like them. Right . Who look like themselves. Use,ther is to make clever and innovative use of oral history materials. I mention that there is this beautiful display at the Hoover Library. At the most recent library, the george w. Bush library, there is a Space Dedicated to actually collecting oral histories. So, if you are a visitor actually, i should say they are not oral. Typed, for the most part, into a computer, but if you visit there, you can include your story in the story of the bush years. But i think its kind of exciting, and i am interested in seeing what they do in terms of how the archive that material. Thing that i think has not been paid great attention to is a sectionion to of the libraries that i did not mention in my quick rundown, which i call the culture gallery. , if not all the president ial libraries, there is a big space where the visitor can see film posters and listen to music, and look at video clips of movies, all in the interest of soaking up the time period. I find these culture galleries, in general, not so effective. , they are kind of a sensory bombardment, you know. You have very small samples of. Nfluential artwork and it is just a little overwhelming to the senses. What would be interesting, i think, would be to step back from that approach to the culture of the time period, and being morek about selective, and choosing particularly influential pieces for the visitor to get a larger sample of. Maybe you get to see an entire scene from a sound, or you get to hear maybe with headphones, song from an entire the billboard list. Way,y, i think that is one through art, to get at the other thing that some of the libraries are doing in terms of thinking about democracy and civic participation, is thinking about the role that the institution of the president ial library itself action. Civic one thing i should note that has often been mentioned as a virtue of the president ial library is that they are not here in d. C. They are all over the country, and some are in big cities, some are in small towns. But they had that sort of structural democratizing influence also in that they are available to people who otherwise might not be able to see them. Some models of the kind of institutional thinking about civic action that i am thinking , themost noticeably Carter Center, which was developed at the same time as the Carter Library and is on the same campus. And within the president ial n exhibitthere is a that is dedicated to the work of the Carter Center. You can learn all about what they do and how people become involved in their humanitarian work around the world. Another, and much less wellknown example of this is in the first george bush library. Exhibit, theythe have an Electronic System set up issuech you can choose an that concerns you at the communit