June 10, 2016 — The Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AR, is surprisingly unpretentious in outside appearance. After passing through security, we were free to wander about.
There were massive displays of Clinton’s accomplishments and activities, including videos of his speeches on each subject. I was unexpectedly very impressed. He was the first to make many things happen that we take for granted today, and he was the most widely traveled of all our Presidents as he worked to create a more unified and cooperative world. If you click on the pictures below you can see more details of each.
There were many interesting gifts that various heads of state had given to President Clinton. One was the below set of nesting dolls of world leaders. They include, in decreasing size, William Jefferson Clinton, George Bush, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Helmut Kohl, John Major, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterand, and (the tiniest) Saddam Hussein.
After his inauguration, President Clinton changed much about the color and “feeling” of the Oval Office, making it much brighter than before (again, click on a picture to see more detail) which were faithfully reproduced in the Little Rock Presidential Center:
The Presidential Seal (below) is part of the royal blue rug (above). It is made with 13 colors to symbolize the 13 original colonies. At right is the President’s desk.
President Tom. Nope, I didn’t take this picture – there was a professional photographer in the Oval Office. How could one resist being President for a Minute?
The Clinton Presidential Park Bridge, also called the Rock Island Bridge, is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge which we could see from the Library building and gardens.
Me next to the Presidential limousine.
Of course we couldn’t leave without a visit to the Gift Shop – where Tom couldn’t resist buying a Clinton Bobblehead as a souvenir.
Very interesting. Enjoyed all pix.