As excited as I was that a Presidential library was an hour away from us I will admit I had reservations about visiting this library. Turns out I am so glad I went because not only is it very well curated but it also sits on the birthplace home of President Nixon and that house is part of the tour. But let me start at the beginning.
The library has a beautiful fountain and is much larger space than the outside would suggest.
When you walk in there is a beautiful presidential seal and pictures of the president and his family. In some museums it is easy to get lost of miss things but the layout was very nice with hallways escorting you from one section to another.
Pretty early on we went into a recreation of his oval office. Unlike many others we have been in they let us sit in the chair behind the desk and the Docent was very helpful. One thing that struck me was how perfectly the color of the yellow couches matched the sash in the George Washington picture. Nice interior design. It also was the first oval office to have the seal of the President in the carpet. The seal was always in the ceiling (I had no idea) but Pat Nixon felt it should be in the carpet as well so it could be seen better and every president since has maintained that tradition.
I like many others only think of how he was almost impeached when I think of President Nixon but no person is all one thing. He ended the Vietnam War, brought many prisoners of war home, and was President during the walk on the moon.
The most interesting thing in this section was about his trip to China and it had significant impact on “opening” China up to the outside world. Pat Nixon wore her red coat everywhere because it signifies luck and prosperity in China and she was hugely popular.
Too be honest my biggest disappointment was how little information there was on Pat. She won a medal for her work in the Red Cross and raised two daughters in Washington (one of whom married in the Rose garden) but despite her work in women’s activism I didn’t see much about her.
The big question in our minds was how they would handle the threat of impeachment but this was done VERY well. They had an entire corridor devoted to it including maps showing where all the White House bugs were. Several Presidents before him had made recordings but for obvious reasons he was the last.
What was crazy about all of this is he ended up winning in a landslide, so it wasn’t even necessary. Look at the electoral map…solid red.
But again no Presidency is one thing and his lists of accomplishments including creating the EPA, The Clean Air act, requiring equal opportunity hiring on job sites, and the Endangered Species Act still have a profound impact on us today.
As if to make my point when you passed through the potential impeachment area the next thing you saw was his childhood. His was a modest one (the son of an orchard farmer and grocer). Everyone comes from somewhere and I really liked the subtle messaging.
He also really loved his wife. She died a year before he did and the look on his face says everything.
I also really liked this picture of all the Presidents and First Ladies who attended his funeral.
The best part of the museum though was the center of the U shaped building which has reflection pools. a miniature rose garden, the Gazebo used in the daughters white house wedding, and their graves. I liked the simplicity of the graves and the fact they had two benches that people could sit at. It was beautiful.
The house sites at the end of the gardens and is in it’s original spot. It was a modest house to raise 5 boys and the bed is actually the one Richard was born in because the weather was so bad they didn’t want to travel the 20 minutes to the hospital.
Finally we saw the actual helicopter he left the White House in at the end of his Presidency. We got to walk through it ..very small inside but still Presidential. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside because it is officially still owned by the Marines and only on loan.
I absolutely recommend this Presidential Library if you are interested in our history. I also would like to commend the museum curators for doing an even-handed job of presenting all sides of his presidency.
Update: A reader notified me that he wasn’t actually impeached he resigned which is fair so I am changing all the references in the blog.
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Camper Chronicles 
Very interesting Trace.
Thank you for your excellent review of the Nixon library. You noticed things I probably would not have. Will put it on our bucket list.