Revamped Jimmy Carter museum opens with intense focus on his life after the White House

Revamped Jimmy Carter Museum opens in Atlanta

ATLANTA — The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum reopened Thursday on the former president’s 85th birthday after an overhaul that devotes more space than any other presidential library to a commander-in-chief’s work after the White House.

Carter beamed as he spoke to hundreds at the opening ceremony, saying: “There’s no way any of you can imagine the emotions that fill my heart and my mind in this moment.”

About a third of the Atlanta museum explores the Georgia Democrat’s life after he was defeated by Ronald Reagan. It includes dozens of photos and videos detailing his efforts to eradicate disease, resolve conflicts and monitor elections.

“We want to present the truth about every aspect of my past experiences in politics and so forth, and particularly to let people get an insight on what a former president might do when they’re involuntarily retired from the White House four years before they anticipated,” Carter said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The museum was closed in late April. The $10 million project is the first major update to the museum since it was built 23 years ago. Attendance had fallen about 50 percent in the past five years as newer attractions such as the Georgia Aquarium drew in more tourists and students, said Jay Hakes, the library and museum’s director.

Hakes said there are two “awe factors” in the updated museum that he hopes will command people’s attention.

The first is an interactive exhibit with six towering high-resolution video screens giving visitors a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of a president.

It focuses on a busy day — December 11, 1978 — that starts with Carter receiving a wake-up call at 5:30 a.m. and follows him as he grapples with the aftermath of a Middle East peace deal, the teetering regime of a U.S. ally in Iran and efforts to normalize relations with China.

The second comes later, in the section on Carter’s work beyond Washington. It’s a smooth touch-screen video table dotted with interactives that take visitors to countries where Carter and staff at the nonprofit Carter Center have worked.

The museum tour starts with exhibits on Carter’s childhood in segregated southwest Georgia and a model of a nuclear submarine where the president once worked as a young naval officer. It then tracks his political career, first as a state senator, then as governor and finally as president. The exhibit ends with a display of the Nobel Peace Prize and other humanitarian awards Carter has received.

Hakes said he sought to present Carter’s term, warts and all. One area tackles his final year in office, with an exhibit on rising inflation rates, the Iran hostage crisis and other foreign and domestic issues that contributed to his defeat.

“The major lesson is that the president is juggling a lot of balls in a day,” said Hakes. “And a lot of the things he was struggling with then, we are still struggling with today.”

On the Net:

www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/