before we begin, i d like to tell you about two upcoming programs we can view on our youtube channel. we ll present a program in partnership with the u.s. association of former members of congress called can congress reform itself again. our moderator will be carla hayden and panelists will include current and former members of congress. and on tuesday, june 15th at noon, historian michael burlingame will be here to talk about his new book, an american marriage, based on 30 years of research describing and analyzing the marriage between abraham lincoln and mary todd. through its presidential eli prayers, the national archives preserves the records of our presidents back to herbert hoover. the stories cover a president s entire life, not just their time in the highest office of the nation. after returning to private life, a number of them turn to humanitarian causes and advisory roles, and you will find both activities documented in the libraries as well. after leaving offic
pat. excellent. good to see you. how how is how is everything going down there? are you reopened yet? i know it s been a tough year for all the presidential libraries. we have not reopened yet. the covid numbers here are um, they re going down. we we hope to get the staff back into building sometimes soon. but the museum is still closed. and for a museum director like myself, i was trained as an archivist, but at some time, you know, you become a museum director. it has been a difficult difficult year. i mean we ve got all these great volunteers the wonderful staff and it s of course we ve been able to interact, you know through zoom and and and other mediums but just not seeing people on a day-to-day basis is been kind of odd, but hopefully we ll get this all behind us and we ll be able to open the museum again soon. exactly. we re all we re all eager to engage with the public and show them all the wonderful things that that we ve got to share. well, i know you ve got some p
we re really lucky in rapid city. we have some interesting history that goes beyond just the culture of the area within the journey museum and learning center. we re talking about the stratobowl and the stratosphere flights in sending man up above the stratosphere. essentially rapid city area is the home of the first space flight. so the what the national geographic in the us army air corps did was they decided to work together to make this happen and they they wanted to find a natural shape. to rest the balloon in the gondola in and so they were looking for a bowl area not only to like spread out the balloon when it was on the ground, but it also that natural bowl shape protects the gondola. the first couple thousand feet as it goes up, and so they scoured all of north america for a place and they had a couple of different decisions that they could have made places. they could have chosen and essentially they chose rapid city because of how kind the people were and because o
i am thank you. pat. excellent. good to see you. how how is how is everything going down there? are you reopened yet? i know it s been a tough year for all the presidential libraries. we have not reopened yet. the covid numbers here are um, they re going down. we we hope to get the staff back into building sometimes soon. but the museum is still closed. and for a museum director like myself, i was trained as an archivist, but at some time, you know, you become a museum director. it has been a difficult difficult year. i mean we ve got all these great volunteers the wonderful staff and it s of course we ve been able to interact, you know through zoom and and and other mediums but just not seeing people on a day-to-day basis is been kind of odd, but hopefully we ll get this all behind us and we ll be able to open the museum again soon. exactly. we re all we re all eager to engage with the public and show them all the wonderful things that that we ve got to share. well, i know y
city. we have some interesting history that goes beyond just the culture of the area within the journey museum and learning center. we re talking about the stratobowl and the stratosphere flights in sending man up above the stratosphere. essentially rapid city area is the home of the first space flight. so the what the national geographic in the us army air corps did was they decided to work together to make this happen and they they wanted to find a natural shape. to rest the balloon in the gondola in and so they were looking for a bowl area not only to like spread out the balloon when it was on the ground, but it also that natural bowl shape protects the gondola. the first couple thousand feet as it goes up, and so they scoured all of north america for a place and they had a couple of different decisions that they could have made places. they could have chosen and essentially they chose rapid city because of how kind the people were and because of how welcoming we are. i me