The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia houses U.S. President Jimmy Carter's papers and other material relating to the Carter administration and the Carter family's life. The library also hosts special exhibits, such as Carter's Nobel Peace Prize and a full-scale replica of the Oval Office, including a copy of the Resolute Desk.
The Carter Library and Museum includes some parts that are owned and administered by the federal government, and some that are privately owned and operated. The library and museum are run by the National Archives and Records Administration and are part of the Presidential Library system of the federal government. Privately-owned areas house Carter's offices and the offices of the Carter Center, a non-profit human rights agency.
The library was built in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, on land that had been acquired by the state of Georgia DOT, for an interchange between two redundant highways that were cancelled by Carter when he was governor of Georgia, in response to the Atlanta freeway revolts. (See Interstate 485, Georgia 400, Interstate 675, and the Stone Mountain Freeway.) Construction started on October 2, 1984, and the library was opened to the public on Carter's 62nd birthday, October 1, 1986. The remainder of the land around the complex is now a parkway and linear city park called Freedom Parkway, which was originally called "Presidential Parkway" (and at one point, "Jimmy Carter Parkway") in its planning stages.
The building housing the library and museum makes up 69,750 square feet (6480 m²), with 15,269 square feet (1419 m²) of space for exhibits and 19,818 square feet (1841 m²) of archive and storage space. The library stacks house 27 million pages of documents; 500,000 photos, and 40,000 objects, along with films, videos, and audiotapes. These collections cover all areas of the Carter administration, from foreign and domestic policy to the personal lives of President and Mrs. Carter. A $10 million dollar renovation of the museum began in April 2009 with completion on President Carter's 85th birthday in October 2009.
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“Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this nation. This difficult effort will be the “moral equivalent of war,” except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. It’s the Chicago way and that’s how you get Capone.”
—David Mamet, U.S. screenwriter, and Brian DePalma. Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery)
“It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Life is in the mouth; death is in the mouth.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 60, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)