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Ellen Sawtell didn’t set out to visit the 13 presidential libraries standing in the United States. She simply had a couple extra days in Austin, Texas, while in town for a business conference. Her colleague, Jackie Gillie, asked her to join in on a visit to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum during their downtime.
As they made their way through the library’s gift shop, they noticed the Passport to Presidential Libraries – a booklet designed to look like a U.S. passport, retailing today for $10. Staff will stamp your passport after each visit to a presidential library. Buying into this passport program was the catalyst to their multi-year interest in visiting all 13 physical presidential libraries across 10 states.
“It was nice to have a goal,” says Jackie Gillie, 64, who’s now retired and lives in Clearwater, Florida. “We started and then were like, ‘Oh wow, we can go visit all of these.’ We can knock them off and then when you get to only two or three left, you become obsessed with, ‘How can we get these in?’ ”
Gillie and Sawtell finished their expedition at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa in 2019, but that doesn’t mean they’re finished. They’re awaiting the opening of former President Barack Obama’s presidential library near Chicago, which is slated to open in 2026.
“We figured once Obama’s opens in 2026, we would go to the one in Springfield for [Abraham] Lincoln,” Sawtell, 51, says from her home in Elmhurst, New York.
Dozens of sites across the country interpret the history of U.S. presidents, whether at National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) presidential libraries, national historic parks, childhood homes to presidents, or other monuments that honor the people who serve in the country’s highest office. If you’re planning to visit any such sites, Gillie recommends starting close to home.
“Start with one that is close, physically close, that you can go and spend time and not be rushed and be able to appreciate what you see,” she says.
After visiting local and regional sites, travelers may be more motivated, like Sawtell and Gillie were, to visit sites that are farther away. Sawtell’s approach for more far-flung visits is to plan excursions outside of the presidential locations and give yourself time for unplanned side trips.
“When we were going through Kansas, we saw a road sign for the Wizard of Oz Museum. And we were like, ‘Oh, we can’t do that today because we were spending all that time making sure we did the two libraries, Truman and Eisenhower, because they were relatively closer than most,” Sawtell says.
According to research by the American Alliance of Museums, people over 60 make up the majority of frequent visitors to museums, history organizations, and botanical gardens. In honor of Presidents Day, here are a few presidential sites across the country where you can dive deeper into American history and the people who helped shape it. Check with sites before visiting for any closures or changes to the schedule.
