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Presidential libraries: from Boston to Honolulu ... or maybe Chicago

Presidential libraries can be found coast to coast, and may even go beyond that once a site is selected for President Obama's future repository of documents and artifacts. To quickly hopscotch around to the 13 official presidential libraries and museums overseen by the National Archives, plus that of Abraham Lincoln, check out this library list.

9. Jimmy Carter Library & Museum

Lee Jin-man/AP
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter listens to reporters' question following his North Korean trip during a joint press conference in Seoul, South Korea, April 28, 2011.

  • By Ross Atkin Staff writer

Website: www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/

Location: Atlanta (Carter's birthplace: Plains, Ga., 1924)

Opened: 1986

Attendance: 51,401

Admission: $8 adults; seniors $6

Bestselling gift shop biography: "Hour Before Daylight" by Jimmy Carter

Hot-selling souvenir items: peanut plant seeds, Waging Peace coffee mug, and books by President Carter

Lesser-known facts: The library site near downtown Atlanta is where an interstate highway was once planned, a projector halted by Mr. Carter when he was Georgia's governor. As all presidential libraries do, the collection chronicles the trials and tribulation of the Oval Office's occupant along with the triumphs. Thus, the Carter Library devotes attention to the 444-day Iranian hostage crisis that was the low point of Carter's presidency. Among the library materials collected hon this subject are instructions for a rescue mission and a journal kept by one of the American hostages.

 The project was stopped by Governor Carate

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

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