Happy Friday!

A new original series from C-SPAN, First Ladies: Influence & Image, debuted on February 18, 2013, President’s Day. The series will run from February 2013 to February 2014 in two seasons. (See C-SPAN’s website for the TV Schedule.)

“C-SPAN is producing a two-year feature series on the First Ladies, examining their private lives and the public roles they played in the White House. Produced in cooperation with the White House Historical Association, each week “First Ladies: Influence and Image” will feature the women who served in the role of First Lady over 44 administrations. This project is the first of its kind –a comprehensive biography series on all of the First Ladies produced for television.

C-SPAN and the White House Historical Association also will collaborate on a video-rich website to accompany the series. The interactive site will feature historic letters, documents and photographs, classroom resources, biographies, recordings, as well as additional resources.”  -C-SPAN First Ladies: Influence & Image

While First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s episode does not show until December, we did want to go ahead and spotlight C-SPAN’s information page dedicated to her. It includes biographical information and several pertinent video clips related to the Carters.

Since December is a bit away, be sure to check out the Jimmy Carter Library’s website for information about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in the meantime! Another great resource is The Carter Center’s website.

 

The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day this week! If you are still looking for something to do on February 14th this year, the Carter Library will be hosting the following author reading and book signing for those of you in or near the Atlanta area:

Creating Room to Read by John Wood
February 14, 2013 at 7:00pm
Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater
“This is the inspirational story of a former Microsoft executive’s quest to build libraries around the world and share the love of books.”

Other remaining author lectures/book signings in February are as follows:

Insane City by Dave Barry
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 7:00pm
Carter Center Day Chapel

Houses of the Presidents: Childhood Homes, Family Dwellings, Private Escapes, and Grand Estates by Hugh Howard
Monday, February 18, 2013 at 7:00pm
Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

The Books That Mattered: A Reader’s Memoir… by Frye Gaillard
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 7:00pm
Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Book events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Please always visit us online for the most up to date information regarding our events and additional details on the books to be discussed. Directions can be found online. We do hope that you will be able to pay us a visit!

These events have me thinking… If the focus of February is often thought of as being about Love, then why not a love of books (and book events!) We’d love to know…what books or authors have had an impact on your life?

On Wednesday, February 13th, 2013, author Kathryn Gibbs Davis will present on her children’s book, Wackiest White House Pets, at the Museum of the Jimmy Carter Library.

Gibbs Davis “…introduces students to the extensive White House menagerie of pets that belonged to the U.S. presidents and their families.” This 60-minute presentation, geared toward students grades 2-5, showcases American history through pets lucky enough to have called the White House “home.”

Reservations are required for student tour programs–if this program piques your interest, please visit the Jimmy Carter Library’s webpage on School Tours and Programs to find out more details about upcoming programs in 2013! (Reservation forms are available online via this webpage.)

The NDC blog is a fellow National Archives blog focusing on the National Declassification Center. According to the NDC Blog, the mission of the NDC is “…to align people, processes, and technologies to advance the declassification and public release of historically valuable permanent records while maintaining national security.”

Well, it appears that, in the process of reviewing items for possible declassification, sometimes staff discover unique, unclassified materials, such as this document (PDF) highlighted in the recent NDC post on “Rickover and the Whale.”

The “H. G. Rickover” in the document refers to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. In TIME magazine’s article, “The Unsinkable Hyman Rickover” (May 23, 1977), President Jimmy Carter is quoted as saying that Admiral Rickover “…has had a ‘profound effect on my life, perhaps more than anyone else except my own parents.’”

“As a young naval officer back in the early 1950′s, I think 1952, I was in the nuclear propulsion program, working under Admiral Hyman Rickover. There were two submarines being built—the U.S.S. Nautilus, the U.S.S. Sea Wolf. I was the senior officer of the U.S.S. Sea Wolf, and I was sent over here from Schenectady, New York, to witness the laying of the keel of the Nautilus…” -Remarks made by President Carter in Hartford, Connecticut at a meeting with state, local, and community officials on October 16, 1980. (The American Presidency Project)

Researchers interested in Admiral Rickover are invited to explore the National Archives’ Online Public Access portal, where we hope that you will dive in to find a wide scope of topics and a great depth of information on historical records within our holdings.

In observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 21, 2013, the Research Room of the Jimmy Carter Library will be closed.  The Museum will be open for normal business hours. If you are in the Atlanta area, we invite you to pay us a visit and to check out the nearby Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, which will be hosting special events as part of “King Week” to commemorate the holiday. Please see the following News Release from the National Park Service for additional details.

ATLANTA, GA- The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site commemorates the 27th observance of the Federal Holiday that honors the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a special panel discussion titled,Children of the Movement: 50 years after the “I Have A Dream” Speech and March on Washington.
Join Elder Bernice King, Dr. Alveda King, Andre Williams, Andrea Young, Khobi Hall and others whose parents were leaders of the modern American Civil Rights Movement in a panel discussion. This special event will highlight the experiences as seen through the eyes of the children that were either actively involved or witnessed the Movement firsthand thus becoming first generation benefactors of their parent’s tireless work within the Civil Rights struggle.

The panel moderator is Dr.Vicki Crawford, Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Special Collection at Morehouse College. The panel discussion will take place at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, Heritage Sanctuary, 407 Auburn Avenue on Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 11:00am.

“Visitation to the National Historic Site reaches its peak during King Week (January 11-21, 2013) and this year the park has created a dynamic, powerful, and relevant program for our visitors,” stated Judy Forte, Park Superintendent. This program is part of a year-long series of events commemorating the 50th Anniversary of
Dr. King’s, “I Have A Dream” speech and the March on Washington.

On Monday, January 21, 2013, the park will have an open house of Dr. King’s Birth Home with extended visitation hours until 6:00 pm. Both events are free of charge and open to the public. For more information on this and upcoming events at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, visit www.nps.gov/malu or call (404) 331–5190.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” For those participating in a MLK Day of Service event or simply taking time out of the day to give back to your community, what are you doing to commemorate the holiday? We’d love to know!

For those of you in or near the Atlanta area, we invite you to join us on Monday, January 21 as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a free showing of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama in our Museum theaters. (Specific schedule details will be announced soon! Check back on our Events webpage for the most current information.) Come with your friends for a big screen presentation of the Inauguration. The screening is free. Also, feel free to come early or stay late to see the Carter Presidential Museum while you are here. (Museum Admission: Adults $8, Seniors $6, Military & Students with ID $6, Children 16 and under are free.)

For those of you in or near Washington, D.C., the Charles Guggenheim Center for Documentary Film is presenting a selection of archival motion pictures from the holdings of the National Archives in celebration of the 2013 Presidential inauguration. On January 21, the President’s swearing-in ceremony will be shown live in the William G. McGowan Theater. Details can be found online. (The Inauguration of Jimmy Carter (January 20, 1977) tentatively will be shown January 17th at noon.)

“Presidential inaugurations are important civic rituals in our nation’s political life. The Constitution requires that presidential electoral votes be opened and counted by the Senate and House of Representatives meeting together, that the candidate with a majority of electoral votes be declared the victor, and that the president-elect, before taking charge of the office, swear an oath of office to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’” -Archives.gov, Center for Legislative Archives

For researchers interested in President Carter’s Inauguration or other past inaugurations, be sure to visit the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) for information on how to locate original historical records regarding inaugural activities–you’ll find over a hundred results. While searching ARC, also be sure to search the system for Digital Copies. The Carter Library has several digital images and digitized contact sheets related to the Carters and the Inauguration available for viewing through ARC. On the Library’s website, you can also find the text of the Inaugural Address of Jimmy Carter.

If that’s not enough inaugural insight for you, try out the National Archives’ Inaugural Quiz! Let us know how you do!

The staff of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum would like to wish congratulations to Archivist James Yancey, Jr. as he enters retirement and begins a new chapter in his life. His enthusiasm for history has touched many a fellow coworker and researcher. He will be missed!

Yancey began working with the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) in July 1977 and came to the Carter Library project in September 1981. (Yancey has been with the Carter Library since before the physical building even existed!) He found his way to NARA by taking a test at the Civil Service Commission and “checking the archives block” on the accompanying placement page–amazing how things work out!

His first archival job was at Morehouse College in Atlanta, reviewing the John Hope Papers. Later, he worked for two years as an Archives Technician and two years in records declassification at Suitland, Maryland prior to becoming an Archivist at the Carter Library. He loves archival work because it gives him the chance to view history in the raw, prior to interpretation. He majored in history from Morehouse College and received a MLS from Clark-Atlanta University.

Yancey loves to play chess; he and coworker James Stewart have taught chess at the Youth Detention Center in Atlanta for several years. He also loves studying the American Civil War and is a member of The Georgia Civil War Commission and is also on the advisory board for The Center for the Study of the Civil War Era at Kennesaw State University. Other interests include taking photographs, hiking, trivia, and traveling.

Best wishes for a bright future!

The staff of the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum would like to wish HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL as 2012 comes to a close…

For anyone planning to visit the Library & Museum in person, please be advised that the Library/Research Room will close at 2:00 pm EST on December 24th and December 31st. It also will be closed all day on December 25th and January 1st, 2013. The Museum will be open  during normal hours from 9:00 am to 4:45 pm on December 24th and December 31st. The Museum will be closed on December 25th and January 1st, 2013.

To celebrate the holidays, NBC will air “A White House Christmas: First Families Remember” television special tonight, Thursday, December 20th (8-9 pm ET). An encore presentation of the special will air Friday, December 21st (9-10 pm ET).

“Hosted by multiple Emmy Award winner Meredith Vieira, the special takes a look at Christmases past and present with 10 presidential families over the last 50 years, featuring interviews with First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Ladies Laura Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Bush and Rosalynn Carter. Several First Children also share their holiday memories, including Barbara Bush, Jenna Bush Hager, Chelsea Clinton, Dorothy Bush Koch, Michael Reagan, Amy Carter, Susan Ford Bales, Tricia Nixon Cox, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson.” -NBC.com

If you are expecting company for the holidays or are traveling to spend time with others, perhaps you are still hunting for a recipe worthy of a Presidential Potluck. If so, check out the National Archives’ Blog, “Prologue: Pieces of History,” for a selection of holiday recipes, many of which could be used throughout the year.

Best wishes to all and “see you” again in 2013!

Today marks the tenth anniversary of President Jimmy Carter receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

“The Nobel Peace Prize 2002 was awarded to Jimmy Carter ‘for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.’” -Nobelprize.org, the Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize

We invite you all to visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum to see the Peace Prize on display in the museum. While you’re in town, it might interest you to know that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize is also nearby at The King Center!

Educators might also be interested to know that our website provides educational resources that highlight issues surrounding peace initiatives and the Nobel Peace Prize with regards to the life of Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center’s Peace Programs. Check out “The President’s Travels,” a geography-based curriculum guide to the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum experience. It uses the life and times of President Carter as a springboard to teach students about the world. Unit 19 of the curriculum focuses on “Waging Peace – The Nobel Peace Prize.”

The text from the Nobel lecture given by Jimmy Carter in Oslo on December 10th, 2002 is available on our website, as well.

Take this Nobel Prize Quiz to find out how much you know about the Nobel Prize and the founder of the Prize, Alfred Nobel. Let us know how you fare by leaving a comment here!

For those of you in and near the Atlanta area, if you have not yet had a chance to see “Industrial Scars, the Photography of J Henry Fair,” the exhibit will continue to be on display at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum until December 11th. We are very excited to be able to hold this exhibit over past its original end date. Access to the exhibit is free with paid admission to the museum. You may purchase admission to the museum online or on site. Directions can be found online.

“Industrial Scars is an aesthetic look at some of our most egregious injuries to the system that sustains us in hopes that the viewer will come away with an innate understanding of her complicity and a will to make a difference.” – J Henry Fair

Fair further comments on his artistic work as follows: “My work is a response to my vision of society. I see our culture as being addicted to petroleum and the unsustainable consumption of other natural resources, which seems to portend a future of scarcity. My vision is of a different possibility, arrived at through careful husbandry of resources and adjustment of our desires and consumption patterns toward a future of health and plenty. To gear our civilization toward sustainability does not necessitate sacrifice today, as many naysayers would argue, but simply adjustment. There are many societies existing at present that have a standard of living at least as high as ours while consuming and polluting a fraction of what is the norm in the United States. As an artist with a message, one asks oneself: how do I translate my message to my medium such that it will effect the change I want? At first, I photographed ‘ugly’ things; which is, in essence, throwing the issue in people’s faces. Over time, I began to photograph all these things with an eye to making them both beautiful and frightening simultaneously, a seemingly irreconcilable mission, but actually quite achievable given the subject matter. These are all photographs of things I have found in my explorations. Other than standard photographic adjustments of contrast, they are unmodified.”

Energy and the environment were prevalent issues during Carter’s administration, so it is fitting to be able to display an exhibition such as Industrial Scars. I find the images to be both beautiful and unsettling at the same time–it is this paradox that causes me to stop and think about what it is at which I am actually looking.

Be sure to stay tuned to our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our Events page to find out about other upcoming events and exhibits in 2013. New information is added frequently, so be sure to check back often.