Here’s what I found:
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http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/298524.html
We were the kind of museum you came to and looked at stuff and couldn’t touch,” Finch said by telephone. “We wanted to make it interactive.”
An $8.3 million renovation courtesy of private donations has changed the museum, first dedicated in 1997. Many popular exhibits remain — such as the TBM Avenger, similar to the one Bush flew in World War II — and many have been added.
Before the renovations, there were 10 interactive exhibits. There are now nearly 100 — covering topics ranging from the Persian Gulf War to landing on an aircraft carrier — and countless flat-screen monitors throughout the building to explain exhibits.
“It’s amazing,” Bush said in a statement, referring to the renovations. “Though our museum looks the same from the outside ... to me it’s as if we have a totally new museum on the inside.
“I am very grateful to the dedicated team that came together to make this face-lift a total success.”
Situation Room and more
Bush and much of his family will be on hand today to celebrate the reopening. President George W. Bush, his son, cannot attend, Finch said.
The renovations, in the works for two years, add not only the Oval Office but also 116 scrapbooks that then-first lady Barbara Bush kept of the family, an audio tour and an interactive White House Situation Room, Finch said.
In the Situation Room, visitors can listen to scenarios Bush faced, receive the information he did at the time and decide what action to take.
Then they’ll learn whether they made the same decision as Bush.
That and a new exhibit on Barbara Bush’s life join more than 40 million documents and nearly 1 million pictures from Bush’s terms as president and vice president and his private life, Finch said.
Last year, the Bush library and museum drew more than 140,000 visitors, making it the fourth-most-visited presidential museum, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Ten years ago, Bush’s $83 million, 69,000-square-foot library and museum opened to a crowd of more than 20,000.
It sounds like a very neat place to visit!