Most of us don’t get a chance to visit a Presidential Library because they are generally established in the home town of that President and in many cases, it is a small town and not a big city. For example, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is in West Branch, Iowa and the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center is in Fremont, Ohio.
Prior to the formal establishment of the Presidential Library System, papers and records of a President’s administration were the personal property of the person who served as President. The Presidential Library System established that those records were Government property and as such were to be maintained by the Federal Government. The irony is that the Library itself, the building that is, must be financed with private funds before the Government will maintain the premises.
There are currently 13 Presidential Libraries and all of them have websites. Some of the sites are better (more web oriented) than others. I personally think the Kennedy and Reagan Library websites are the best because they are very interactive and give you a very good internet experience, while the Carter website is just horrible. The 13 websites are listed below. So, if you can’t visit one in person, visit one online. After all, you got 13 to chose from.
- John Quincy Adam in Quincy Massachusetts.
- Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois
- Rutherford B. Hayes in Fremont, Ohio
- William McKinley in Canton, Ohio
- Woodrow Wilson in Staunton, Virginia
- Calvin Coolidge in Northampton, Massachusetts (Admission is free)
- Herbert Hoover in West Branch, Iowa
- Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York
- Harry S Truman in Independence, Missouri (there is no link to an active website)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower in Abilene, Kansas
- John F. Kennedy in Dorchester, Massachusetts
- Lyndon B. Johnson in Austin, Texas (also see the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation)
- Richard M. Nixon in Yorba Linda, California
- Gerald R. Ford in Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Georgia
- Ronald Reagan in Simi Valley, California (you can also check out the Reagan archives)
- George H. W. Bush in College Station, Texas
- Bill Clinton in Little Rock, Arkansas ( also see the Presidential Center)
- George W. Bush in University Park, Texas