Education

LEWISVILLE (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― Former president George W. Bush is busy planning for his presidential library at Southern Methodist University, which will open in 2013. Currently, 40,000 gifts and artifacts Mr. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush collected in office are being stored in North Texas.

From the outside, it's a non-descript 60,000 square foot warehouse in Lewisville, but the director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, Alan Lowe says inside, the warehouse is, "A time capsule of the Bush administration."

Among the gifts and artifacts displayed for CBS 11 News are a silver and gold palm tree given to President Bush by the prime minister of Iraq, a diamond and sapphire jewelry set given to the first lady in 2007 by the king of Saudi Arabia, and a mosaic of St. Peter's Square given to the president by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Washington D.C. last year.

Two other gifts are personal for the former president: a pair of cowboy boots, made by Bush family friend Rocky Carroll that have the Texas state capitol on the back and the White House on the front, and the bat given to the president in March, 2001 from the Baseball Hall of Fame that's signed by every living member of the hall of fame.

There are also some of the more iconic pieces that helped define the Bush presidency. The bullhorn President Bush used to address firefighters at ground zero three days after the September 11th attacks will be at the library. "That item really helps concentrate people. It helps you think about that and from that we can teach so many lessons," Lowe said.

The library will also display the pistol Saddam Hussein was carrying when a U.S. soldier found him in his spider hole.

The wood paneling from the old White House situation room is now boxed up in the warehouse and may be used to build a replica.

There's also the letter written by then national security adviser Dr. Condoleeza Rice given to President Bush at the NATO Summit in Istanbul, Turkey on June 28, 2004. It said, "Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from Paul Bremer at 10:26am Iraq time. Condi." Mr. Bush responded by writing on the note, "let freedom reign."

Dr. Jennifer Schulle, the registrar at the George W. Bush Presidential Library was hired to supervise and catalog all of the items. She says, "I felt blessed. It was wonderful."

Schulle remembers former President Bush's recent visit to the warehouse. "He got to see many of the things and he got reminded and it brought back memories of his time in office."

Besides the gifts and artifacts, the George W. Bush presidential library will have 30,000 cubic feet of archives, including documents, audio and videotapes, and photos. There are also 100 terabytes of digital information which Lowe says amounts to 100 trillion bytes of electronic information.

Lowe is a veteran of presidential libraries. In 1989, he began working at former President Ronald Reagan's Presidential Library in California, and has also worked at former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential Library in New York.

Lowe says technology is the biggest change he's seen in the national archives. "At the Clinton Library, they have roughly four terabytes of electronic information. So you see in a relatively short amount of time, the growth and use of technology fundamentally altered the job we do as archivists," he explained.

For Dr. Schulle, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. "Most museums you come into and the collection is established and you have to learn what's there. But with this, we get to be there from the ground up, and that's an amazing opportunity. It's a wonderful opportunity to preserve contemporary history," she said.

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