Austin – Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

I’ve been slowly making my way around all of the Presidential libraries in the United States and I’m nearly half-way through them. Unfortunately, some of them are more accessible than others in terms of their locations. The library and museum of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, is located at the University of Texas in Austin and so is one of the more accessible.

I took quite a few photos when I was at the museum, although unfortunately a combination of my limited phone camera of the time and Google’s compression of the photos has meant they’re not particularly clear. Behind this talking animatronic of Johnson, who was President from 1963 until 1969, are numerous caricatures of him.

A series of photos of former Presidents and their wives.

A recreation of the Oval Office as it would have looked during Johnson’s time there, with this recreation being a common theme at Presidential museums.

I liked this quote.

These photos aren’t very clear, but a few weeks before I visited the museum it had been also been visited by President Barack Obama. It’s not very clear, but the upper photo above is of Barack Obama listening to the exhibit’s phone, which I decided to also use whilst standing in the same location knowing I’d then listened to the same phone as a former President. I’m easily pleased…

On the subject of recordings, President Johnson secretly recorded many meetings and phone calls, around 800 hours of them. Many of these recordings were available to listen to at the museum, a fascinating record of the times and it gave a real feeling of being there when political events were unfolding.

As a museum it was cleverly put together and it was accessible in terms of the information provided. I don’t know a great deal about the politics of the United States in the 1960s, but this was an interesting overview of the work undertaken by the President of the time. All rather lovely.