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November
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Friends of the LBJ Library eNewsletter
November 2010
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Dear Friends,

Next Monday, the LBJ Library will feature An Evening with Ambassador Carlos Pascual, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Ambassador Pascual will offer his views on the pressing issues we face with our neighbors to the south in a set of remarks and in a conversation with Ambassador James Jones, who held the same post during the Clinton Administration. As always, I hope you can join us.

Also, I hope you'll visit our website, www.lbjlibrary.org, to check out new content offering we're excited about: President Johnson's daily diaries, kept throughout his years in the Senate and White House. It's part of an ongoing effort to make the content of the LBJ Library archives more accessible to the public, many of whom will never walk through our doors. That becomes a charge for us - and all presidential libraries - in the Information Age.

All the best,

Mark K. Updegrove
Director

On Monday, November 8, the Library will welcome Ambassador Carlos Pascual to speak to the Friends of the LBJ Library. Carlos Pascual has served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico since his confirmation in August 2009. Most recently, Ambassador Pascual was Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

Following Ambassador Pascual's formal remarks, he will be joined on stage for a conversation with Ambassador James Jones, who served as Ambassador to Mexico under President Clinton. The evening will be co-sponsored by Texas Monthly.

Please RSVP by returning the postcard enclosed with your invitation or by emailing friends@lbjlibrary.net. Doors will open at 5:15 p.m. Please bring your membership cards for admittance. After 5:00 p.m., free parking is available in the Library visitors' lot (#38), lot #37, and lot #39.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of State.
The LBJ Library has posted on its website daily diaries spanning 3,400 days from LBJ's Senate years through his presidency. The newly posted LBJ daily diaries offer a remarkable look back at the mid-term elections of 1966 and give a unique insider's view into the daily events inside the Johnson White House during a turbulent time in the country, the 1960s.

Johnson's secretaries began compiling the typed and handwritten daily diaries in 1959, when he was Senate Majority Leader and continued through his vice presidency and presidency. As meetings, travel, social events, and telephone calls occurred, the secretary "working" the Diary would note them.

The diaries, which total more than 14,000 pages, reveal much more. The secretaries also summarized conversations, noted the President's mood, included moments of humor, and, on occasion, noted events the President directed to be "off the record."

"Posting the Daily Diary is part of the LBJ Library's ongoing mission to provide an intimate, unvarnished look at the inner workings of the Johnson White House" said Mark Updegrove, LBJ Library Director.

Supervisory Archivist Claudia Anderson, who led the Library's effort to post the Diaries, emphasized that "The President's Daily Diary is a rich resource that provides context for many of the documents and recordings of telephone conversations included in the Library's collections. It also gives scholars insights into President Johnson's character, lifestyle, decision-making processes, sense of humor, and relationships with his friends and family."

For more details or for a link to the Daily Diaries, please visit the press release online.

LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto, taken of President Johnson working with Secretary Phyllis Bonanno on September 14, 1968.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Elementary
  • November 30: Annual Harry Middleton Lecture featuring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Lifetime and Sustaining members have received invitations. Public tickets will be available at the LBJ Library's Information Desk starting at 9:00 a.m. on November 10. Tickets will be available at the Information Desk from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day while they last. Limit two per person.
  • December 3-4: Tax-free shopping at the LBJ Museum Store
  • December 9: An Evening With John Bredar. Invitations will be mailed soon.

Photo of Justice O'Connor courtesy of the Collection of the United States Supreme Court.

For any questions related to your Friends of the LBJ Library membership, please email friends@lbjlibrary.net.
Friends of the LBJ Library
LBJ Library and Museum

phone: (512) 721-0176