Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library & Museum
Austin, Texas
Photos and text © Gleaves Whitney 2005
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The Hauenstein leadership fellows checked out the LBJ Library. This is an interior cross-section of the multi-story archives, seen from the Great Hall of the LBJ Library. The library houses 45 million pages of historical documents, 650,000 photos, one million feet of motion picture film, and 5,000 hours of recordings from the public career of LBJ and those of his close associates.
Since 1971 research at the LBJ has resulted in or contributed to 80 books, 72 articles, 67 doctoral dissertations, 34 master's theses, and 36 term papers. -
The Hauenstein group got together with presidential historian H. W. Brands (second from right) to talk about their research projects. Brands has been a mainstay of the Hauenstein Center. He teaches at the University of Texas and is one of the most prolific presidential biographers/historians of our day. The Pulitzer Prize nominated finalist has written about Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower, and a number of other presidents.
One professional tip that he passed along: when reconstructing dialogue, historians should use quotation marks only if they can verify the dialogue (1) in a sound recording they have heard with their own ears, (2) in a reliable printed source, and (3) in an oral interview they conduct with a reliable witness who can vouch that the president said thus and such.