Our visit to the Lyndon Baines Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin was another, interesting adventure. Byron first visited here in 2011. For Martha, it was her first visit. During our time there, Byron commented that many of the displays had undergone renovation because it wasn’t like he recalled. In fact, there was a massive year-long renovation and addition of new exhibits to the three public floors of the building with completion in January of 2013. Byron said the renovation really changed how the exhibits were displayed and made them more engaging.
Welcome to the LBJ Library & Museum.
Unlike the other libraries and museums, the Johnson version
is all in one building. The others have the library holding
separate from the museum exhibits.
The building on the campus of UT Austin looks like it came
right out of the architectural era of the 1960’s; rather plain
with very few windows.
Once in the building, which is under the control of the National Archives and Records Administration, we learned that the museum exhibits are spread across three floors. One starts at ground (entry) level, goes up one, and then takes the elevator to the ninth (top) floor to view the remainder of the exhibits. Floors five through eight contain the stacks and documents. An appointment and approval is needed for access to those floors.
The Johnson Presidential Limousine is located just inside the
entry to the museum exhibits.
The stacks and documents can be viewed through the windows
as one looks up the marble steps from the third floor to the fourth
floor. The third floor is at ground (entry) level.
The photo and timeline walls aid in recalling the events in historical context—1960s.
The thematic displays rely heavily on red and blue for color coordination. These are more thematic in context rather than being a linear timeline.
Several quotations are featured throughout the exhibit areas. They are display on walls that transition from one area to another.
Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country:
To right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.
March 15, 1965
LBJ: “I’m just catching hell every day.”
Truman: “That’s a sign that you’re doing the right thing.”
Johnson and Truman conversation in 1964
It seems that a mandatory thing it to display how the Oval Office appeared during the term of the president. Johnson preferred lighter, neutral colors so that the colors of flags could stand out. Even the carpet was solid in color with the presidential symbol being woven in relief.
To utilize the space more economically, the Johnson
version is at 7/8 sized dimensionally. Still, his rocking chair
and footstool were retained at full size.
Something learned about Johnson: LBJ had always voted with the block of Southern Democrats during his terms in the House of Representatives and Senate. This meant not addressing the inequalities of race and the Jim Crow laws. That stopped in late 1956 or early 1957 when he determined he was only being expedient and not true to his core belief about racial equality. His first position out of college was teaching in a school where there were Anglo-Americans as well as Mexican-Americans in equal balance. He saw how inequity was unfair.
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” –– Lyndon Johnson remarks at Gettysburg, May 30, 1963.
“To deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.” — Lyndon Johnson, speech before congress on voting rights, March 15, 1965
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