Presidential Museum and Leadership Library, Presidential history museum at University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Odessa, United States.
The Presidential Archives and Leadership Library is a museum and library complex at 4919 East University Blvd. in Odessa, Texas, on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Formerly called the Presidential Museum, its contents, including the library, were transferred to UTPB in 2011 and it reopened to researchers and the public under its current name.
The Presidential Museum closed to the public from August 2009 to February 2010 after financial hardship. Its contents, library included, were transferred to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in 2011, and the facility reopened to researchers and the public as the Presidential Archives and Leadership Library. The nonprofit corporation behind it, now doing business as Friends of the Presidential Archives, was formed in Texas in September 1978.
The institution began as the Presidential Museum, run by a nonprofit corporation formed in Texas in September 1978 and tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3). In 2011 its contents, library included, passed to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, and it reopened as the Presidential Archives and Leadership Library. The former museum body now does business as the Friends of the Presidential Archives.
The museum is on the university campus in northeast Odessa and is easiest to reach by car, as public transport options in this part of the city are limited. Plan for around two hours to move through the exhibits without rushing.
The museum holds one of the few full-scale replica rugs of Harry Truman's Oval Office floor covering that exists outside of Washington. Most visitors walk past it without realizing it is a faithful copy of the rug that sat at the center of American presidential power for years.
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