Azastan wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 3:44 pm
Gregg wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 3:18 pm
The Presidential Library part is actually just a special office of the National Archives where all the executive branch records for those four years will be kept, and it will be quite a substantial thing that only a few historians and researchers ever use. They have, in the last century, had attached to the library a Museum of their administration that has a lot of stuff that belongs to the government, too but is loaned for display, a lot of stuff donated by people and institutions usually built and supported by private non profit foundations. JFKs is the largest, and there is some obscure law that changed that made it a bad financial move to build larger than a certain size and that makes it unlikely they will ever build one any bigger than that.
Truman's museum has a lot of neat stuff, notably the huge round table around which the United Nations Charter was signed, Ike's is full of WWII memorabilia , not surprising since he always considered himself a General of the Army first and the President thing a kind of side gig he did.
One thing theses foundations have been useful for is as a way to give the ex President an income and a budget. Now they all go on book tours and the speaker circuit and make bank but there was a time when Truman getting $21,000 a year salary as an employee of his foundation was something he needed to live on. (Also, his needing it s bad was why they finally passed a Presidential Pension act which I think now they ought to repeal)
I get the feeling sometimes that nobody ever reads what I post. Please note the date posted:
Azastan wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:30 pm
Since we are talking about presidential libraries, I'm going to throw out some statistics. The largest library in terms of physical size is the John F. Kennedy Library. It's a YUUUUUGGGGEEEEE building, consisting of 166,573 gross square feet on 13 acres.
It is followed closely by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum building consisting of 147,400 gross square feet on 29 acres.
The smallest Library in size is the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum at 47,169 square feet.
Interestingly, a library the size of the JFK or Reagan libraries is probably not going to happen in the future, because although not specifically limiting the size of Presidential Libraries, the Presidential Libraries Act of 1986 mandates that Library foundations must provide an endowment to NARA upon acceptance of the Library facility by the Archivist of the United States. The size of this endowment is based in part on the size of the facility.
The requirement of a significant increase in the endowment for facilities over 70,000 square feet has had the practical effect of limiting the size of newer Libraries to less than 70,000 square feet.
Since TFG won't be able to brag about his library being the biggest, one may never get built.
Your post is where I got the part of mine about not gonna be another because some obscure tax thing. Also, source for JFK library being the biggest.
The distinction between the "library" which is the National Archives and as such Federal Government, and the almost always adjacent Museum which are Private Foundations I knew, I think I remember a tour guide explaining that at Ike's Museum in Abilene when I was a kid.
Although I have to say that 167,000 sq ft isn't that big a building to me. The main building I work in is 2.3 million sq ft, Livonia is 2.5 million sq ft and Kentucky Truck Plant where Super Dutys are built has two main buildings, the "little one" is 1.8 million sq ft and the "main building" is 4.9 million sq ft.
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I walk a lot at work, although I usually use a golf cart.
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