And the Johnson Library in austin. Since we are running late, we will not do extensive introductions. Michael mcdonald is the curator at lbj and arbor klein and barbara klein. Christina is the registrar. We have our new archivist and our registrar. What we will do tonight is a behind the scenes look at some of the treasures at these three president ial libraries in texas. We are the only state in the country that has three president ial libraries. They will each talk, they have 20 minutes each. If they go too long, they have to leave the stage. Hopefully, we will leave a little bit of time at the end. The ideas to leave time at the end for you the audience to maybe ask some questions you have thought about during the program. We release in question time at the end and i will moderate that. I will pick you out. There are microphones. Tonight is being taped by cspan. There will be microphone so if you raise your hand, you will be passed to microphone so we can get the question on camera and video and the audio. If you will wait for that and ask your question and then we have a lovely reception. If you did not want to ask a question or you had a question and you did not have time to ask it, the panelists will be available after the program to take your questions. Thank you all for being here. [applause] i was asked to come here to do a talk on the lb eightj library. Its hard to narrow it down to a few things. The next thought i had was president johnsons telephone recordings. Have any of you heard any of the recordings . A good show of hands there. President johnsons, in the administration, his staff recorded several hundred hours of telephone recordings. There were two machines that were called dictabelt machines. The president would signal for his secretary and she would flip the on off switch. There were two machines. As the first one started to end, the second would automatically take up and you did not lose anything. We always warn researchers that there are transcripts. They did not always what was going on with Domestic Affairs and did not know what the president was talking about you we always recommend if you are looking at the transcript, you also listen to the telephone conversations while you are reading it. I brought this one conversation to give you a sample of what im talking of doubt. With the conversation of the speaker of the house, john mccormick, he and the president are discussing who might be nominated to be on the warren commission, the commission to investigate the jfk assassination. You can see where i have the blue arrow. The president says you might say that sounds like lbj. If you listen to the conversation, he actually says i have the pakistani ambassador waiting. [laughter] we are going to listen to this. When they talk about the nominees for the warren commission, you will hear that he talks about a future president named gerald ford. Hes considered a pretty liberal fellow and fortis from the north. Youve got to southerners but you have two northerners and they are civilians. It offsets. Im not arguing with you. I want you to if you disagree. You could not have better men but i think the geographical location on the legislative level is something i call to mind for you to consider. Kentucky up north is considered south. But then i might not have any senator. There are three men appointed to represent the public area listen, you go ahead. How am i going to take care of them . Ive been doing it. Goodbye. Listen, i was doing some state work. You bet check, ive got the pakistani ambassador waiting for may. Thats a pretty blatant error on that one. Sometimes they did nothing except leave out a word in the sentence. That changes the whole meaning of the sentence or paragraph. I really love this conversation. This really shows the dynamic between Lady Bird Johnson and her husband. During the Second Press Conference that he had, these are the notes she took it she is critiquing his press conference. As you listen to the conversation, you can wallow along where it says that you were breathless perhaps slightly fast. Up here in the upper corner, she gives him a b . As you listen to the president , he is funny because she calls him and says do you have time to listen to our critique. He sounds a little irritated when he gets to the grade. You what to listen to about one minute. Yes, maam, im willing now. I thought you looked strong and like a reliable guide. Your looks were splendid. The closeups were much better than the distance once. There were more closeups than distances. During the statement, you were a little breathless. You are looking down and i think it was a little too fast. Not in a change of pace. I thought you looked strong firm, and like a reliable guide. You look splendid. Your closeups were much better than the distance one. You can get them to do it there were more closeups and distances. During the statement, you were a little restless a little breathless, and i think it was little too fast, not enough change of pace. Dropping the voice at the end of the sentence. There was a considerable pickup in interest when the questioning began. Your voice was noticeably better and your facial expression was noticeably better. I think the outstanding thing is that the closeups were excellent. You need to have the opportunity to study more and read it with more conviction and interest. And change of pace. President johnson the problem is, they criticize you for taking so much time. They want to use it all for questions. In their questions dont get news, they catch hell, so my problem was trying to get through before 10 minutes and i still ran 10 minutes today. I took a third of it for the questions and i could have taken 15 minutes. If i read it like i wanted to. But i did not know what to cut out. I thought if i replaced one of those names, they would call up the fellow and they would ask him about it and then they would publicize it good. Lady bird johnson i would use 13 minutes or 14 minutes for the statement. In general, i feel it was a good b plus. How do you feel about it . President johnson i thought it was better than last minute that than last week. [laughter] i want to make a comment about this photograph will stop i use this photograph i want to make a comment about this photograph. Its when he says hes not going to run for a second term and there were a lot of wellwishers, friends and Family Members calling the white house to speak to both of them and there were two phones in the bedroom, so they were both taking phone calls. To me, it looks like they are talking on the phone to each other from across the room. [laughter] in the summer of 1964, it was a busy and volatile time for the country. It was right at the time when american ships were under attack and the gulf of tonkin and there were three missing civil rights workers near philadelphia, mississippi. There was a debate going on in the president s poverty bill and a president ial election coming up that november. On august 4, the president was meeting with congressional leaders at the white house and j edgar hoovers assistant calls the president to tell him they found three bodies. I think it shows a very human side of Lyndon Johnson because he asks when they are going to make the press announcement. He says that 10 minutes and he says i want you to wait until you can notify the families. President johnson i think we ought to follow if we can talking to walter. [indiscernible] president johnson are you following him . Mr. President. Mr. Hoover wanted me to call you and say the fbi has found three bodies in philadelphia mississippi, six miles west of where the civil rights workers were last seen on the night of june 21st. A search party has turned up the bodies about 15 minutes ago when they were digging in the woods in the underbrush off of route 21 in that area. We are going to get a car right away and move these bodies to jackson, its acidity, where we hope they can be identified. We have not identified them as of yet, but we have every reason to believe they are the three missing men. They were on the side of a dam that had been constructed near philadelphia, mississippi. We wanted to let you know right away, sir. President johnson when are you going to make the announcement . Right away. Within 10 minutes of its all right with you. I plan on making it in washington, just that the fbi has found three bodies and has identified them. But has not identified them. President johnson if you can hold about 15 minutes, i think we are to notify these families. Do you wish to do that prior to the time they are identified . We think they are the ones. President johnson i think we can tell them we dont know but that would kind of ease it a little bit. All right, sir. President johnson i will get right back to you. All right, sir. You often hear background noise and we are pretty sure considering what some of the conversations that were about that were recorded that sometimes, one eat a roberts one he to roberts Juanita Roberts forgot to turn the machine off, so things were recorded that probably were not meant to be. Whenever i speak to a group on telephone calls, i always include them. This is conversation with congressman adam clayton powell, the first africanamerican congressman from new york. He was the chairman of the House Committee on education and labor. This excerpt, lbj chastises powell because of the delays in the house on the elementary and secondary education act. It is a prime example of Lyndon Johnson and his arm twisting, or what we sometimes call the johnson treatment. [audiotape] yes, sir. President johnson congressman powell once to put me on all stop congressman powell how is my friend . President johnson what the hell is happening in your committee. I told i thought you told me you are going to pass that bill. Congressman powell you want a 400,000 appropriation we could not pass one billion 200 million for school kids. Ive got nothing to do with what you are doing in the house investigation, but you dam near defeated the best Education Bill ive got an a hope youre going to be proud of it. Congressman powell in your appellation bill. Appalachia bill. President johnson the appellation bill doesnt have anything to do with anything. If you are going to let them lead you off the reservation iran for nothing last year. If you are going to tie up this congress and screw up when you have done for three weeks by running off until you get 400000 and appropriation, we can never get anywhere. You defeat this, hold it up and delay it and get us in this kind of shape, we cant pass anything and thats all right. I think you will be the hell of a bunch of your little world democrats. Your liberal democrats. Im going to be here. Its not going to bother me, your liberal democrats. Its not going to bother me. Im very disappointed. I thought i had better leadership on that committee. I dont think you are entitled to it and think that you did. I think you looked me straight in the eye and said i will report this bill and get it on the floor. You didnt do it. You didnt then you ran off for three weeks and i couldnt even locate you to tell you. This is serious, this is bad this is the thing we ran on all over the country and there are people being dam well taken care of. [laughter] i would say that is quite a dressing down. The final conversation i wanted to play for you was one the president had with ibm president tom watson. This is the day after president johnsons famous american Voting Rights speech where he talks about being a teacher in texas and how he saw how the poverty and a good tree affected all of and the bigotry affect did all of those students in this mexicanamerican school he taught in. He says in the speech i didnt know then i was going to become president and that i would have the power to change the lives of students and their children. He looks right at the camera and says im going to let you in on a little secret i intend to use it. In this conversation, he talks about how the republicans are not responding to this speech quite the way he expected. President johnson an interesting thing ive got 436 1436 pros and 82 cons. That ought to give you a little heart. President johnson he says you have expressed the conscience of the nation and the nations commitment to civil rights. He should have unqualified support and you have all of mine. I thought it was the most forceful speech ive seen anyone make ive never seen you come through as strongly or anyone come through that strongly. President johnson the republicans didnt want to get up. I told them i never thought i would be president when i was teaching school, but i was and i had this power and im meant to use it. I looked over and all the democrats were up and i looked at the camera and put my head back and i look at the camera and i wish you had seen them get up. Thats what i was doing. All of them had glue in their britches and they were just stuck. When they saw the camera circling around with that little red light, it was the funniest thing i ever saw. They dam well on to have gotten that because it was magnificent. That is the glue in the britches telephone call. The last thing doesnt have to do with telephone calls its a couple of photographs of president and mrs. Johnson at Andrews Air Force base in 1969. They are leaving washington to go back to their retirement home in texas. If you see the little blue arrow pointing down, you will see there is a young congressman by the name of George Herbert walker bush in the crowd there to bid them farewell. The letters you see on the side, youre not going to be able to read them, but im going to give you some excerpt from them. The one letter is from the head of the university of texas oral history program. He wrote a letter to the president that says when i spotted congressman george bush of houston in the farewell crowd, i asked him why a prominent republican such as he was seeing you off instead of being in the midst of republican activities in the city. His reply was a nice tribute to you. He said youve been a fine president , invariably courteous and fair to me and my people. I thought i belong here to show in a small way how much i have appreciated him. I wish i could do even more. Lbj wrote congressman bush a letter and said i was deeply appreciative of your words as he quoted them to me. Please know i value your friendship as i do your fathers and i am glad you are one of us down here in texas. Please know i value your friendship as i do your fathers and i am glad you are one of us down here in texas. I wish you a long and illustrious career in congress. That is the end of my presentation. Im going to turn it over to mike mcdonald. Mike good evening. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you, barbara for that presentation. I hope i can follow up. Tonight, we will be talking at about the Museum Collection at the lbj library. As you know, the lbj library is on the campus of the university of texas in austin and like the bush library, our mission is to promote the public understanding of the presidency by documenting the lifetime and lyrical career political career of Lyndon Baines johnson, the 36th president of the United States. Within the Museum Collection, we have over 55,000 objects. We usually have about 2 of the collection on exhibit at any time. The collection goes from head of state to everyday objects that were used, worn or own lives johnsons during the presidency. Some of the gifts are from ancient middle eastern objects to objects that were used by the president in the oval office during his time presidency. We have fine art that goes from childrens drawings to sculptures by frederick remington. Original artwork by charles russell. Winslow homer. Diego rivera. We also have everyday items such that the president wore. This jacket here, he wore the ranch a lot. We also have items from mrs. Johnson. For example this is the outfit she wore during the 1965 inauguration. Then we have objects that are just handcrafted by the ordinary citizen, both from the u. S. And abroad. This is a lucite paperweight that someone sent to the johnsons that represent their beagles. Him and her. Everyone in the Johnson Family had the initials of lbj, from lady bird, to the president , to the two daughters, to the beagles. [laughter] im not going to get into that. Most of the objects that were sent by ordinary americans are sent because the gift or has some kind of appreciation, respect, admiration for the president. This was sent after the president signed the Medicare Medicaid act. We also have over 2000 head of state gifts. Head of state gifts are gifts that are presented to and from heads of state of sovereign nations as gifts to the people of that nation. So unlike the bulk of the collection, our property of the johnsons before they were given to the library, the head of state gifts remain property of the United States government. The head of state gifts that we have for the ones that were given during the johnson administration. They range from ceremonial swords given by morocco and saudi arabia. Two dynasty funeral sculptures, to art from all over the world. This is an image of the Gift Exchange between Indira Gandhi and president johnson. Everybody has those in their collection. I have seen them here at the bush library. What i want to get into next are the unusual objects that are in our collection. The strange connection between dr. Seuss and lbj. What we have in our collection are all of the original artwork for dr. Seusss the lorax. The lorax collection consists of 63 individual pencil and crayon drawings, as well as the camera ready drawings which are of the drawings that actually appeared in the book before they went to the publisher for colorization. This is an example of an original crayon. All of this is original work by dr. Seuss. He would actually type the text up on pieces of typing paper and just paste it to where he wanted it in the book. This is an example of a camera ready. What is interesting about this collection is that not all of his original drawings were maintained in the camera ready. It was a jeff draft, then he finalized it. For example, in the beginning of the book, the lorax is detailed, you can make out all the features. As you progress through the book, the lorax becomes a blob as he focuses on other aspects of the book. Youre probably asking how we got this. There was a chance meeting between dr. Seuss and liz carpenter. The way that dr. Seuss tells the story is that he was at a democratic event out in california. He happened to be seated next to liz carpenter,