Hail to the Chiefs History Geek Style

My bucket list goal of visiting every presidential library and museum just got a little bit longer.  I found the article linked below rather interesting.  The actual headline on the CNN page was something about Herbert Hoover's library being the dud of the bunch.  In the article it just says it's the least visited.

Bigger, but better? A look at how George W. Bush's presidential library stacks up - U.S. News:

'via Blog this'

I can tell you first hand, the Hoover library is not a flashy museum.  It's actually very simplistic in layout and size.  It's older, dingier, and darker.  It's the smallest in size of building and collection.  And it's in the middle of nowhere Iowa.  If you blink and miss the billboard, there is a good chance that you would never even know it was there.  Thankfully, I didn't miss the billboard and Brent and I visited the Hoover library on our presidential road trip a couple of years ago.

Had it been the first library we visited, we probably would have been impressed.  But keep in mind, we had already visited Eisenhower's, Truman's, and Lincoln's museum, and the World War One museum, which are all amazing, jaw-dropping, well-funded museums.  Ending our museum streak with the Herbert Hoover museum was a nice reminder though.  Not all presidents lived with the same pomp and circumstance that the presidents picture above did.  Herbert Hoover faced the stock market crash and the great depression but will forever live in the shadow of FDR who gets all the credit for "fixing it."

Anywho, my point...I always have point if you look hard enough.  Don't overlook Hoover in favor of the bigger, more modern, uber-funded presidential libraries of the past two decades.  The historical perspectives presented by them are still very biased as they've had the input of the president himself in creating the exhibits.

While it's certainly convenient that George W. Bush's library is in Texas near two other presidential libraries, I think I'll hold off visiting for a while.  History has yet to judge.  That being said, who wants to go to Boston and Hyde Park, New York with me??