Happy Earth Day! How can the National Archives be a greener place? How about using goats? Last year, 900 goats grazed on the grounds of the Reagan Presidential Library. An annual brush clearing is an important part of fire abatement because the Library is located in a fire-prone area. The Library took on 400 goats in 2011 to clear 13 acres of brush around the property. In 2012, 900 goats covered 40 acres. A portable fence was used to move the goats around and keep them safe. A shepherd also lived on the property for the entire month to watch over the goats so that they were safe from coyotes or bobcats. Read the full story on the Prologue blog.
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Happy Earth Day! How can the National Archives be a greener place? How about using goats?

Last year, 900 goats grazed on the grounds of the Reagan Presidential Library.

An annual brush clearing is an important part of fire abatement because the Library is located in a fire-prone area. The Library took on 400 goats in 2011 to clear 13 acres of brush around the property. In 2012, 900 goats covered 40 acres.

A portable fence was used to move the goats around and keep them safe. A shepherd also lived on the property for the entire month to watch over the goats so that they were safe from coyotes or bobcats.

Read the full story on the Prologue blog.

No, those are not real penguins in the fountain! They’re a work of art, just one of the 24 pieces that are currently installed at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of ArtPrize 2012. Check them out before the contest closes on October 7!

Source: artprize.org

If you love Laura Ingalls Wilder, don’t miss September 3 at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum!

Sarah Uthoff will be performing her Laura Ingalls Wilder program on Monday, September 3, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Be transported back in time to 1931, when Laura Ingalls Wilder is trying to decide whether it’s worth reworking her first book to submit to the publishers one last time.


There will also be a guided Prairie Walk of the 81-acre tallgrass prairie at the Hoover National Historic Site at 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

There is no charge for either of these events. Regular admission fees will be charged to go through the museum. For more information call 310-643-5301 or visit the website.

Did you know that Hoover Library has the papers of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter Rose Wilder Lane? She wrote a biography of Herbert Hoover. Read more here: http://www.ecommcode2.com/hoover/research/wilder/index.html

This outdoor exhibit in Seoul, South Korea, featured photographs from the National Archives holdings in the Truman Presidential Library. Mike Devine, the director of the library, was surprised and pleased when he ran across these images. “In the last decade or so, we’ve had quite a number of researchers from Korea to the Truman Library to copy thousands and thousands of images. Still, I was surprised to see this in this big outdoor exhibit,” Devine said. “As I got closer, I was like, ‘Hey! That’s our stuff!’” Read the full story on our Pieces of History blog.
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This outdoor exhibit in Seoul, South Korea, featured photographs from the National Archives holdings in the Truman Presidential Library. Mike Devine, the director of the library, was surprised and pleased when he ran across these images.

“In the last decade or so, we’ve had quite a number of researchers from Korea to the Truman Library to copy thousands and thousands of images. Still, I was surprised to see this in this big outdoor exhibit,” Devine said. “As I got closer, I was like, ‘Hey! That’s our stuff!’”

Read the full story on our Pieces of History blog.

Letter from Juliette Low to Lou Henry Hoover, December 6, 1917 (pages 1 and 4 of 4 shown)

“A thrill of joy”

In one of the earliest communications between Girl Scouts founder, Juliette Gordon Low, and Lou Henry Hoover, Low thanked Hoover for agreeing to join the Girl Scouts. Hoover became the Acting Commissioner of the Washington, DC, Girl Scout Council at about that time. 

National Archives, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum

LBJ in the Presidency

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum will host Mark Updegrove—author, historian and Director of the LBJ Library—for a discussion of his new book Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency.
The free reading and book signing will be Tuesday, April 17, at 7 pm in the Carter Museum Theater. A Cappella Books will be selling copies of Indomitable Will at the reading.

Through original interviews and personal accounts as well as through Johnson’s own candid reflections and historic White House telephone conversations, Indomitable Will reveals LBJ as never before. “For it is through firsthand narrative more than anything,” writes Updegrove, “that Lyndon Johnson—who teemed with vitality in his sixty-four years and remains enigmatic nearly four decades after his passing—comes to life.”

See the original photograph in ”The Roosevelts: Public Figures, Private Lives,” a new exhibit opening this spring at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Franklin Roosevelt’s harsher critics sometimes compared him to a dictator. In 1934, the President and his staff turned this criticism into a lighthearted joke at FDR’s 52nd birthday party. Roosevelt is Caesar, and Eleanor Roosevelt is sitting behind the President dressed as the Oracle of Delphi. Find out who wore the toga in this blog post.
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See the original photograph in ”The Roosevelts: Public Figures, Private Lives,” a new exhibit opening this spring at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

Franklin Roosevelt’s harsher critics sometimes compared him to a dictator. In 1934, the President and his staff turned this criticism into a lighthearted joke at FDR’s 52nd birthday party. Roosevelt is Caesar, and Eleanor Roosevelt is sitting behind the President dressed as the Oracle of Delphi. Find out who wore the toga in this blog post.

In 1941, the staff at the Roosevelt Library celebrated the new institution’s first Christmas by decorating President Roosevelt’s private study. This small, blue stocking for FDR’s beloved Scottish terrier, Fala, is hanging next to the President’s stocking in the photo to the right. The original stocking and other decorations are temporarily on display during the holidays. Come and visit!
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In 1941, the staff at the Roosevelt Library celebrated the new institution’s first Christmas by decorating President Roosevelt’s private study. This small, blue stocking for FDR’s beloved Scottish terrier, Fala, is hanging next to the President’s stocking in the photo to the right. The original stocking and other decorations are temporarily on display during the holidays. Come and visit!

Source: fdrlibrary.wordpress.com