C-Span’s new series Presidential Libraries:History Uncovered has been quietly running on Friday nights at 8pm EST this fall in anticipation of the upcoming presidential race. So far I’ve only managed to catch 1.5 hours of one show (Truman),but I really enjoyed watching old footage of Truman’s first press conferences and ads. Even more,I enjoyed seeing a supervisory archivist (Sam Rushay) and Truman Library director Michael Devine discussing the collections and answering questions from live callers. I think that as anyone who has worked for NARA,or has even done research at a NARA-run Presidential Library could tell you,it’s quite unusual that either patrons or visitors would be able to interact with either the processing staff or the library director,so this show covers some ground that would not generally be available otherwise.
While the timing of the show (Friday night?!) leaves something to be desired,this is a great opportunity to showcase these collections and to demonstrate how the past connects with the present. It looks like previously aired episodes (as well as clips from previously unseen materials used on the show) can be downloaded from the C-Span site and watched in RealPlayer. The episodes are going in the order of Presidential term,and this week is John F. Kennedy. Stay tuned–I’ll definitely be watching.