The Obama Library

[LDAHL]

I see they’re breaking some Frederick Law Olmsted ground for the Obama Presidential Library today. Unlike other such libraries, the records will be controlled by the Obama Foundation rather than the National Archives. I assume this is to keep a particular spin on history through the ages.

I always thought these libraries were a peculiar sort of institution. Why build these temples to past presidents rather than house the records with other federal records? They aren’t sacred relics.

[iris lilies]

I thought I remembered that the taxpayers don’t pay for these presidential edifices honoring ego, and when I looked it up that is apparently right. To build the things that are many millions of dollars, private fundraising is necessary.


But I think it’s true that after they’re built, the running of them does cost the taxpayers.

I think it is fine that President Obama retain complete control of his records and artifacts, as long as he’s willing to pay for it into the future. Somehow I doubt that that’s what’s going on here.

[Tradd]

There was a big battle about the library’s location. The Friends of the Parks organization was very against it. Others were “how can you go against anything the first black President” wants to do. It’s Chicago. There’s probably some bribes and other assorted corruption involved with the building of it. Just a matter of how many alderman will be indicted.

:devil:

[Yppej]

At the Kennedy Library you have to pay admission. They're not libraries but I've also been to Mount Vernon and Monticello and paid, whereas the birthplace of Lincoln and the boyhood home of Lyndon Johnson were free. There's also a fee for the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park but my parents didn't think it was worth it so we just toured the grounds.

[flowerseverywhere]

We have been to many of both parties . Constructed through private fundraising, they are important archives of presidential memorabilia and papers. They actually are considered part of the national archives and preserve and store many documents for historians and researchers They charge admission and many have special programs and non profits which contribute financially to them.

to me it is similar to Smithsonian type libraries. Full of stuff meant to educate as well as honor those wh reach the office, regardless whether you like them or not.

what type of civilization would we be if we did not support museums and libraries?

[LDAHL]

To me they seem to be one more symbol of the imperial presidency. Hit up the donors for one last gesture of self-aggrandizement. “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair”.

I remember being at a ribbon-cutting where an old hack said to me “You haven’t really made it in politics until they put your name on a building”.

[iris lilies]

To me they seem to be one more symbol of the imperial presidency. Hit up the donors for one last gesture of self-aggrandizement. “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair”.

I remember being at a ribbon-cutting where an old hack said to me “You haven’t really made it in politics until they put your name on a building”.

That’s what they do now, buildings instead of statues to commemorate themselves. What’s the woke crowd going to do with these buildings anyway, insist that they be torn down as well? Hmmm.

I think of all the Carnegie libraries around the country, not intended as monuments to Andrew Carnegie, capitalist pig, but funded largely by Andrew Carnegie. He gave some thing like 50% of funding. What a dilemma for the social justice warriors. And so many of these old libraries are named after a local important person who donated major funding towards the other 50%.

One of my favorite small libraries is in Webster city Iowa where a local rich farmer donated most of the funds to build it, going over and above Andrew Carnegie’s standards. It is much fancier than your average small town Carnegie library, has a gorgeous marble entryway and several other fine features that stood the test of time.

[Tradd]

IL, interesting about the Carnegie libraries. The woke crowd is all “bad person evil” but can’t accept a person might have done good and bad. Nuanced doesn’t seem to be part of their vocabulary.

[iris lilies]

IL, interesting about the Carnegie libraries. The woke crowd is all “bad person evil” but can’t accept a person might have done good and bad. Nuanced doesn’t seem to be part of their vocabulary.
Old Andrew, being a Scotman who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, was all for offering a helping hand to communities as they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. A 50% donation rather than building the entire thing for them ensured they had skin in the game.

But he didn’t pay for any fancy shit in tiny towns! Hence, the Webster City, Iowa library Committee said thanks but no thanks to Andrew because they wanted their marble Palace.

[bae]

Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” was very influential in developing my philanthropic approach. I think it is well worth a read even in this era.

[nswef]

Having grown up in Pittsburgh, Carnegie was an example to us of philanthropy, however he had some wicked management practices as I recall. I loved the "big" Carnegie library in Pgh. but our local library was county funded, I think. Overall, did he do more good than bad? Who knows?

[catherine]

Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” was very influential in developing my philanthropic approach. I think it is well worth a read even in this era.

I love that book. If I were wealthy, I would hope that it would inspire me.

[iris lilies]

Having grown up in Pittsburgh, Carnegie was an example to us of philanthropy, however he had some wicked management practices as I recall. I loved the "big" Carnegie library in Pgh. but our local library was county funded, I think. Overall, did he do more good than bad? Who knows?
Generally speaking, true for around these parts anyway, county library systems were not around in Andrew’s day. It was all farmland.

[catherine]

Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” was very influential in developing my philanthropic approach. I think it is well worth a read even in this era.

One more riff off of this--I'm sure, bae, you have heard this story a million times, but when I lived outside of Princeton, it was a regular anecdote when driving down Rt. 27 to Princeton with visitors.

Here's the complete story (https://www.americanheritage.com/what-princeton-really-needed)

Here's the bottom line:


One strong bond between Carnegie and President Charles William Eliot of Harvard was their common aversion to football. “I should like very much to have the paragraph in which you sum up the faults ofthat bloody game,” Carnegie had written Eliot. “It begins by stating that the maimed and the killed are not the worst feature, it is the trickery, fraud, etc., the plot to concentrate and disable certain players on the other side, etc., that make the game so objectionable.” A favorite poetic line, taking care of both Britain and the United States, which Carnegie delighted in quoting was: “The flanelled fools at the wicket/The muddied Oafs at the goal.”

Wilson would have been well advised to have steered Carnegie far away from the playing fields of Princeton. At the conclusion of the long day, when Carnegie was at last ready to board that quaint vehicle posing as a train to take Princeton visitors back to the main line to New York and Philadelphia, he turned to Wilson and thanked him for a most instructive day. As the story would later be told by generations of delighted Princeton fans, Carnegie then said, “I know exactly what Princeton needs and I intend to give it to her.” His momentarily ecstatic host, who had visions of libraries, laboratories, and law schools dancing in his head, eagerly asked, “What?”

“It’s a lake. Princeton should have a rowing crew to compete with Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. That will take young men’s minds off football.”

Carnegie was as good as his word. Construction was begun that spring by the Hudson Engineering Company to build Lake Carnegie by damming up Stony Brook, east of the campus. Howard Russell Butler, Princeton class of ’72 and an avid rowing enthusiast, served as general manager of the project. Two and a half years later, at a cost of $400,000, the lake, three and one half miles long, four hundred to one thousand feet wide, was completed and officially opened at elaborate ceremonies attended by Carnegie on December 5, 1906.

[bae]

It is a lovely lake and I enjoyed it greatly :-)

[iris lilies]

One more story about Andrew Carnegie and then I will shut up.

He gave much of the money toward building the 1912 main library building in St. Louis which is a gorgeous building I was privileged to work in for decades. It is truly stunning, like other big city libraries of its time.

When we renovated this 1912 building, putting $80 million in it, we moved everything out for construction. My boss cleaned out the safe in his office, having never really reviewed all materials in it. He found a treasure trove of library history including a hand written letter from Andrew Carnegie announcing the gift of $2 million to City of St. Louis for several libraries. It was on Skibo Castle stationery, Carnegie’s Scottish home.

So cool!

When this recent renovation was complete, we invited heirs of Andrew Carnegie to visit and a couple of them came. They were hosted by our local Scottish Saint Andrews Society of which I was a member, so that was a nice marriage of my interests.

My boss was the perfect library director to manage this renovation because he has major respect for the building, as did our architects, and it is tough to bring an old building like this into modern use. There are many challenges.

In addition to the marvelous renovation which won awards worldwide, it was a beautiful thing that we didn’t have to raise taxes to make it happen. It was funded with essentially taking out a mortgage, municipal bonds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2013/03/29/remodeled-st-louis-central-library-is-a-marvel/

[Yppej]

which one awards worldwide,


This is why editing posts should be allowed. Speech recognition software makes IL look less educated than she is, and I know she will fix this at some point.

[nswef]

Thanks Iris Lilies for posting that article. How lucky to work in such a beautiful place. My cousin works in the Pgh. Carnegie Library. I haven't been there since I was about 20....so have no idea how it looks now, 50 years later. Hope it's as well done as yours in St. Louis.

[LDAHL]

This is why editing posts should be allowed. Speech recognition software makes IL look less educated than she is, and I know she will fix this at some point.

Defund the Grammar Police!

[catherine]

One more story about Andrew Carnegie and then I will shut up.

He gave much of the money toward building the 1912 main library building in St. Louis which is a gorgeous building I was privileged to work in for decades. It is truly stunning, like other big city libraries of its time.

When we renovated this 1912 building, putting $80 million in it, we moved everything out for construction. My boss cleaned out the safe in his office, having never really reviewed all materials in it. He found a treasure trove of library history including a hand written letter from Andrew Carnegie announcing the gift of $2 million to City of St. Louis for several libraries. It was on Skibo Castle stationery, Carnegie’s Scottish home.

So cool!

When this recent renovation was complete, we invited heirs of Andrew Carnegie to visit and a couple of them came. They were hosted by our local Scottish Saint Andrews Society of which I was a member, so that was a nice marriage of my interests.

My boss was the perfect library director to manage this renovation because he has major respect for the building, as did our architects, and it is tough to bring an old building like this into modern use. There are many challenges.

In addition to the marvelous renovation which won awards worldwide, it was a beautiful thing that we didn’t have to raise taxes to make it happen. It was funded with essentially taking out a mortgage, municipal bonds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2013/03/29/remodeled-st-louis-central-library-is-a-marvel/

What a great story, IL!! I remember the beautiful buildings in St. Louis when I was there--the library is certainly one of them! Unfortunately I hit a paywall for the article--I go in and out of subscribing for the WaPo so I think they're getting annoyed with me and are banning me from a limited # of free articles. But I really liked your personal account of the restoration. What did you do with the Carnegie letter?

[iris lilies]

What a great story, IL!! I remember the beautiful buildings in St. Louis when I was there--the library is certainly one of them! Unfortunately I hit a paywall for the article--I go in and out of subscribing for the WaPo so I think they're getting annoyed with me and are banning me from a limited # of free articles. But I really liked your personal account of the restoration. What did you do with the Carnegie letter?

I just grabbed the first decent article that came up on the Google hit list but there are many others on the web besides the Washington Post article about this library renovation. It is one of the great urban libraries by one of the great turn-of-the-century architects, Cass Gilbert.

The letter from Andrew Carnegie is preserved in library’s Special Collections department along with many other important artifacts from library history.

As I clean out my house here of crap in preparation for a move, one thing I WILL take with me is a 5 inch rectangle of glass floor from the old library stacks. Pieces of the floor were cut and polished as gifts for staff and board members. During the many administrative meetings we had during construction, I was perky throughout when they detailed the building changes. My attention span was not always so lively in discussions of other matters.:)

Another set of “crap “ I will be taking with me are two neighborhood awards We received over the years. These awards are so cool, they are pieces of architecture welded into statuary. I use both of them as doorstops because they are quite heavy. Handsome and also practical.

Iris likes her old architecture.

[catherine]

Iris likes her old architecture.

I hear ya. I love that you kept the old pieces of the library.

[pinkytoe]

I worked near the LBJ library in Austin for years. The exhibits also highlight the history of those times - Vietnam etc. so in that regard they might have some value besides glorifying their namesake. The Johnsons kept an apartment on the top floor and the decor has been frozen in 1971 time but I don't know if that is open to the public.

[flowerseverywhere]

I worked near the LBJ library in Austin for years. The exhibits also highlight the history of those times - Vietnam etc. so in that regard they might have some value besides glorifying their namesake. The Johnsons kept an apartment on the top floor and the decor has been frozen in 1971 time but I don't know if that is open to the public.
I agree with how fabulous this one is. On the University of Texas campus, there are several museums as well, one has one of the 11 US copies of the Guttenberg Bible. The LBJ also has a large section on the Civil rights movement.
The Clinton museum is fascinating, and even has a section about the impeachment. That one is loaded with gifts to the Clintons through the years Including a spectacular Chullily glass tree. Presidents are not allowed to keep gifts but can store them in presidential libraries for all to view. They are allowed to buy them back at full market value. As you can imagine, you see some spectacular stuff.

[Teacher Terry]

I haven’t been to any of the libraries but they sound interesting.