George W. Bush Presidential Center

George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut at the Grace-New Haven Hospital. His father, George Herbert Walker Bush, served as Vice President and then the 41st President of the United States from 1989-1993. Bush even had a grandfather named Prescott Bush who served as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. He was raised mainly in Houston, Texas and graduated from Harvard Business School when he went off to college being the only U.S. President to receive a MBA. Afterwards, he served in the Texas Air National Guard. Bush even owned the Texas Rangers baseball team prior to his position in the presidency.

Regarding his career in politics, Bush served as Governor of Texas from 1995-2000. His first aspiration was running for the open seat in Texas’s 19th congressional district, but he lost that race by a few points. In 1999, Bush announced his candidacy for President of the United States and ultimately won the Republican nomination choosing former Chief of Staff and U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney as his running mate. They took on Vice President Al Gore and U.S. Senator Joe Liberman in the general election where Bush would win the electoral votes needed despite some controversy, but he became one of five U.S. presidents to lose the popular vote despite winning the election. Four years later, he won re-election against U.S. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Some of Bush’s most notable decisions during his presidency included the No Child Left Behind Act, $1.3 million dollars spent in tax cuts, waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2007, and major education reform.

The museum features a number of important archives and artifacts, including a full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it looked during Bush's Presidency. Unique from similar exhibits at other Presidential libraries, visitors to the Bush Library are invited to sit behind the replica of the Resolute. Other highlights include exhibits related to the Bush family and exhibits related to the September 11th tragedy as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of the popular exhibits is where visitors can participate in an interactive "decision points" theater simulation where they are able to make real-time crisis decisions similar to the decisions made by President Bush. The museum features details of the events that took place all during President Bush's two terms in office. An opening ceremony took place where former Presidents George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama attended that celebrated the grand opening of Bush Jr.’s presidential library.

"About the George Bush Presidential Center." George Bush Center. Accessed February 24, 2016. http://www.bushcenter.org/about-the-center/index.html.

Isensee, Laura. “Details emerge about Bush library, policy center,” Dallas Morning News. February 21st, 2009. Accessed May 6th, 2021.