The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum takes visitors through six decades of American history in its permanent exhibit, America: 1908–1973. The exhibit focuses on the story of those years and on the journey taken by LBJ and Lady Bird Johnson through those times. With photographs, letters, music, sound effects, and recorded commentary, the museum breathes life into the saga of a turbulent time and the man who rose to leadership as it unfolded.

But the LBJ Library and Museum is more than just a look back in time…it’s also a place of varied and unique pieces of art. If you walk through the main entrance into the lobby, for example, you’ll see sculpture portraits of Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson by Robert Berks; a beautiful oil on canvas portrait of Lady Bird Johnson standing in a field of wildflowers, by Aaron Shikler; and a heroic version of Frederick Remington’s Bronco Buster, done in 1909, that Remington called the best version produced.

Just past those works is a large-scale oil on canvas entitled Thirteen Americans that was commissioned by Lady Bird Johnson. The thirteen people that artist Alfred Leslie included in the portrait represent Americans who were directly impacted by social programs of the Great Society legislation passed during President Johnson’s administration.

As you walk through the permanent exhibit, you’ll see a total of five sculpture portraits by Robert Berks. In addition to the Johnsons, there is Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and a version of President John F. Kennedy that was the model for the heroic sculpture outside the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

As you ascend the stairway in the Great Hall, you’ll encounter an 8-by-50-foot metal mural of photo-engraved, etched magnesium plates. Artist Naomi Savage used a painstaking process to reproduce images from the LBJ Library archives showing Lyndon Johnson as President, with the four Presidents with whom he worked during his public career—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy.

Some of the rarest objects of art found in the LBJ Library and Museum were given to the people of the United States from heads of state throughout the world. The President of Mexico presented President Johnson with a rare Diego Rivera painting, Still Life With Gray Bowl (1915), made during Rivera’s experiment with cubism.

You can see the simplicity of Roman sculpture from the first century ad in a white marble portrait of a youth. And you can marvel at the glazed and painted terra cotta Chinese tomb sculptures from the T’ang Dynasty (618-908 ad). Ancient artwork sometimes took the practical forms of terra cotta oil lamps—one, a gift from Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, dates to King Heron Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee.

The examples of jewelry range from the ancient to the exotic. You’ll see a gold ring dating back to the first century ad and gold earrings, a gift from King Hussein I of Jordan, that date back to between the second and third centuries ad. More contemporary examples of jewelry include a fantastic platinum necklace with an aquamarine pendant and diamonds, a gift from Arthur da Costa e Silva, the President-elect of Brazil.

Throughout the three floors of exhibition space, you’ll see examples of sculptures, rugs, pottery, photography, and paintings that remind you that there’s much more than just American history at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.

The LBJ Library and Museum is open every day from 9–5, except Christmas Day. Admission is free. The Museum is located at 2313 Red River. For more information please call 512-721-0200 or visit www.lbjlib.utexas.edu.

Thanks to LBJ Library and Museum for the article
and photos.