LEWISVILLE, Texas — Eight years of “still-evolving” American history is meticulously cataloged, wrapped, stored and guarded in the climate-controlled warehouse.
Sixty-eight million pages of documents, a surfboard, 175 million e-mail messages, countless cowboy hats, 3,845,912 photographs, Stan “The Man” Musial’s autograph, gold and silver swords, handmade quilts, diamond jewelry, cowboy boots, classified files, a gift from the pope and the 9mm Glock pistol that Saddam Hussein was armed with when he was rooted out of his hole in Iraq.
Welcome to the Bush White House, now in storage in Lewisville, where there’s even wood flooring from the Oval Office and chairs from the press room.
It will all eventually move to the $300 million George W. Bush Presidential Library opening at Southern Methodist University in 2013. But for now, archivists are trying to get their arms around the giant collection of documents and “museum objects” stored in the 60,000-square-foot facility managed by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Lavish personal gifts - such as diamond and sapphire jewelry given to first lady Laura Bush by the king of Saudi Arabia and custom cowboy boots with the large “GWB” monogram from Houston boot-maker Rocky Carroll - grab one’s attention first.
“I like to think of them as a good time capsule that reveals everything that is going on during his eight years in office,” said Jennifer Schulle, the library’s registrar.
“You get to see not only things going on politically, but you see things going on in terms of fashion, social customs, culture,” she said. “We’ve got gifts from American Idol winners and the Jonas Brothers. The gifts really reveal more than just politics.”
The art objects range from an incredible mosaic of St. Peter’s Square given to President Bush by Pope Benedict XVI to a stunning gold replica of the Temple of Heaven, given bythe Chinese minister of foreign affairs, with the five figurines from the Beijing Olympics accented with Swarovski crystals.
“When you’re the president, you don’t get cubic zirconium,” Schulle said.
But some of Bush’s favorites are more all-American.
“The president truly prized a baseball bat signed by all the living members of the [National] Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001,” Schulle said.
Sports paraphernalia is wellrepresented in the collection, said Shannon Jarrett, supervisory archivist at the facility, located a couple of miles north of President George Bush Turnpike, named to honor Bush’s father.
“There’s a lot of cowboy hats and baseball memorabilia, jerseys from championship teams, bicycles and, of course, every Texas president gets saddles,” Jarrett said.
But in the historic realm, it’s the documents from momentous events such as the 9/11 attacks and the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan that will prove to be of more lasting value and interest, said Alan Lowe, director of the library.
“The Bushes are very much involved in the library,” Lowe said. “President Bush has been here looking through photographs. He has been very engaged with us.”
Both George W. and Laura Bush are writing books, and “they are probably our main customers right now. They rely very heavily on the records,” Jarrett said.
Eleven people are on staff at the Bush library, Lowe said, with 10 new archivists slated to start by mid-January. Eventually, the staff will number about 35, he said.
And they’ll have their work cut out for them as they prepare for the first release of Bush presidential records on Jan. 20, 2013, five years after he left office.
Under the 1981 Presidential Records Act, records can be withheld for five years - up to 12 years for issues involving national defense and other sensitive issues, Jarrett said.Documents related to national security can be withheld longer.
Classified documents are stored in a sealed area of the warehouse.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 12/21/2009