Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993 TAG: 9305100079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
One of those tickets, with highly stylized printing and florid 19th-century language, is among more than 200 items related to America's 42 presidents on display in a new exhibit.
"Can you imagine? That would be like getting tickets to Watergate," said Lee Langston-Harrison, curator of the James Monroe Museum and organizer of the exhibit.
Johnson, a Democrat, served from 1865 to 1869. He was impeached by Republicans in the House of Representatives, but cleared by the Senate.
The exhibit runs the gamut from grand china and formal White House invitations to Woodrow Wilson's bridge deck and a 1953 "Citizens for Eisenhower" newsletter.
"The 18th-century items tend to be more formal. Later on things get more cheesy," Langston-Harrison said.
Called "Presidential Paraphernalia: From Washington to Clinton," the exhibit includes personal items such as letters and notes and official White House documents.
The exhibit begins with a letter from George Washington, coincidentally addressed to "Governor Clinton," a British colonial overseer. There is also a shopping list prepared by Thomas Jefferson and a love letter from John Tyler to his wife.
The exhibit for each president includes a portrait, an example of his signature and at least one other item.
All but a handful of the items came from the Monroe Museum's large collection, Langston-Harrison said. Most have never been displayed.
There is a lock of Jefferson's red hair, cut just after the third president died, and a piece of the White House draperies used by James Buchanan. Garish Victorian-era paintings of presidents are mounted near political cartoons lampooning Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and others.
The museum is housed in Monroe's former law office in Fredericksburg's Old Town section. A prize possession is the writing desk where Monroe signed his famed Monroe Doctrine, protecting nations of the Western Hemisphere against European interference. Monroe served in the White House from 1817-1825.
The Monroe Museum exhibit will continue through October.
by CNB