Get Patriotic With This Quiz on Presidential Libraries

"The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene,” Dwight D. Eisenhower said during his homecoming for the opening of his presidential library. The campus dedicated to the 34th President also features a visitors center, his boyhood home, a statue, pylon plaques, and a place of meditation where he’s buried.

On August 10, 1962, President Herbert Hoover’s library opened in his hometown of West Branch, Iowa, on his 88th birthday. Located on the grounds of the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, the library traces Hoover's history from his birth to his career as an engineer, to his time as the secretary of commerce before becoming the 31st President.

As the first of three presidential libraries in Texas, the 30-acre Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum proves they indeed do things bigger in Texas. Located at the University of Texas at Austin in a 10-story building, the landmark opens with a dramatic Great Hall and a four-story view of the archives. It holds 45 million pages of documents and 55,000 artifacts.

Unlike other presidential libraries managed by NARA, President Barack Obama’s library can’t be physically visited, since it is the first fully digital presidential library. That makes sense, considering about 95% of the Obama administration’s presidential records were digital-born. However, the Obama Presidential Center under construction in Chicago will eventually host a museum open to visitors, scheduled to open in the fall of 2025.

Located about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles in Simi Valley, California, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum features the exact Air Force One plane that transported the 40th President more than 660,000 miles to 26 countries and 46 states. Also on display is a colorful section of the Berlin Wall, an F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter, and a Secret Service exhibit.

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is not only located in the 33rd President’s hometown, but is also the final resting place of Truman, his wife Bess Truman, their daughter Margaret Truman Daniel, and her husband Clifton Daniel. Opened in 1957, the museum’s collection features some 32,000 objects.

Perhaps the most high-profile of all the presidential libraries, the 164,000-square-foot John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was designed by I.M. Pei and sits on the Boston waterfront, adjacent to the University of Massachusetts at Boston. The striking nine-floor structure with a glass roof pavilion was dedicated on October 20, 1979.

There are currently 14 presidential libraries managed by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Texas is home to three of them, more than any other state. The Johnson Library is located in Austin, while the George H.W. Bush Library is in College Station, and the George W. Bush Library is in Dallas.

Few cities are as synonymous with a President as Little Rock is. After you fly into the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, you can drive along President Clinton Avenue to the Clinton Presidential Center and Park in the River Market District, where the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is located. The 20,000-square-foot library documents American history at the turn of the 21st century.

We have President Franklin D. Roosevelt to thank for the presidential library system. Roosevelt believed that presidential papers were an important part of history, and should be systematically preserved and accessible to the public in perpetuity. His successor Harry Truman agreed, and after both men created libraries for their papers, Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act in 1955 to make sure the practice continued.