A gaggle of politicians is criss-crossing the nation as you read this, spending millions on a long shot at taking a seat inside the Oval Office.

But there's a better way to get a look at that fancy rug with the presidential seal. Anybody can do it, and nobody will expect you to fix the economy or bring peace to the Middle East when you get there.

Thank Franklin D. Roosevelt. He recognized the wealth of national history crammed within the millions of documents created during his administration and took action to preserve them in a presidential library/museum. Since then, outgoing presidents have raised private money for their own facilities, then turned them over to the care of the National Archives and Records Administration to house the vestiges of the executive branch at work.

It's no small job, even with only 12 of the 43 presidents' archives under the NARA umbrella. President Clinton amassed about 77 million pages of paper documents, 1.85 million photographs and more than 84,600 museum artifacts during his administration.

And while the archives preserve history, the museums preserve the public spotlight on our nation's past leaders. The newer museums especially strive to be interactive and kid-friendly.

The private side of the museums makes for some interesting approaches to the telling of history. While President Nixon's museum is upfront about the Watergate scandal, for example, President Clinton's portrays Kenneth Starr as a political pit bull out to thwart Clinton's good works, and the name Monica Lewinsky is barely mentioned.

Here's a rundown of the dozen federally run presidential libraries/museums, starting with Herbert Hoover's (the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, like some others not listed here, are privately or state-run operations).

Admission to the 12 libraries ranges from free to $14. Some offer discounts for people in the military. All are closed on Christmas, and most are closed Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, but open every other day of the year.

One thing most of them have in common: a detailed replica of the Oval Office.

---

William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum

1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, Ark.

• Phone: (501) 374-4242

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday

• Admission: $7; $5 for seniors and college students; $3 for ages 6-17; free for ages 5 and under

• Highlights: A presidential limousine; replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room; a place setting for a formal White House dinner; timelines showing what Clinton did on specific days in office; correspondence from people like Whoopi Goldberg.

George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

1000 George Bush Drive West, College Station, Texas

• Phone: (979) 691-4050

• Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday

• Admission: $7; $5 for seniors; $3 for college students; $2 for ages 6-17; free for ages 5 and under

• Highlights: A flight simulator for landing a 1944 TBM Avenger on an aircraft carrier, as Bush did during his Navy days; a 30-foot replica of the Capitol dome; spy equipment used when Bush headed the CIA; and replicas of Bush's Camp David office, the Oval Office and the White House press room.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley, Calif.

• Phone: (805) 577-4000

• Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily

• Admission: $12 for ages 18-61; $9 for seniors; $3 for ages 11-17; free for ages 10 and under

• Highlights: The Air Force One Pavilion houses the "Flying White House" that Reagan and six other presidents used between 1973 and 2001, plus a Lyndon Johnson-era Marine One helicopter; also, a large section of the Berlin Wall; Reagan's Eureka College letter sweater.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum

441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, Ga.

• Phone: (404) 865-7100

• Hours: 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon-4:45 p.m. Sunday

• Admission: $8; $6 for seniors, students with IDs; free for ages 16 and under

• Highlights: The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Carter in 2002; a replica of the Oval Office; a display of gifts of state presented to Carter.

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

303 Pearl Street, NW, Grand Rapids, Mich.

• Phone: (616) 254-0400

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily

• Admission: $7; $6 for seniors; $5 for college students with ID; $3 for ages 6-18; free for ages 5 and under

• Highlights: A holographic tour of the Ford White House; a day in the Oval Office via sound and light show; a Watergate gallery, including the burglary tools used in the 1972 break-in; a replica of the Cabinet Room; the staircase from atop the U.S. Embassy in Saigon when that city fell to North Vietnam.

Note: The Ford Library is a separate facility in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda, Calif. (just 15 minutes from Disneyland)

• Phone: (714) 983-9120

• Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday

• Admission: $9.95; $6.95 for seniors; $5.95 for college students; $3.75 for ages 7-11; free for ages 6 and under

• Highlights: The phone used by Nixon to talk to Neil Armstrong on the moon; a moon rock; the Marine One helicopter used by four presidents but best remembered for taking Nixon from the White House after his resignation; the house where Nixon was born; replicas of the Lincoln Sitting Room and the East Room of the White House.

Note: There's also a Nixon Library in College Park, Md., but items from Maryland are being moved to Yorba Linda.

Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum

2313 Red River St., Austin, Texas

• Phone: (512) 721-0200

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily

• Admission: Free

• Highlights: Mint condition 1910 Model T Ford given to Johnson by Henry Ford II; Johnson's presidential stretch limousine; a replica of the Oval Office; architecturally, this 10-story building includes an impressive view of the five stories of archives.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Columbia Point, Boston, Mass.

• Phone: (617) 514-1600

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily

• Admission: $10; $8 for seniors and students; $7 for ages 13-17; free for ages 12 and under

• Highlights: A striking I.M. Pei building with a huge flag hanging in a large glass pavilion; Oval Office replica, including a rocking chair used by Kennedy; Emmy Award that Jacqueline Kennedy received for her famous televised tour of the White House; from May to October, Kennedy's 26-foot sailboat, Victura, outside the museum.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum

200 SE 4th St., Abilene, Kansas

• Phone: (785) 263-6700

• Hours: 8 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Memorial Day-mid-August; otherwise 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. daily

• Admission: $8; $6 for seniors; $1 for ages 8-15; free for ages 7 and under

• Highlights: Eisenhower's boyhood home and the Place of Meditation, where Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, are buried; an 11-foot statue of Eisenhower in his World War II uniform.

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum

500 West U.S. Highway 24, Independence, Mo.

• Phone: (816) 268-8200

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday (open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays from May 1 through Sept. 30); noon-5 p.m. Sunday

• Admission: $7; $5 for seniors; $3 for ages 6-18; free for ages 5 and under

• Highlights: A wrenching exhibit on Truman's heavy burden of becoming president during wartime and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, including the memo that gave his approval; a replica of the Oval Office, complete with Truman's famous "The Buck Stops Here" sign.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, N.Y.

• Phone: (845) 486-7770

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (open until 6 p.m. April-October)

• Admission: $14, including tour of Roosevelt's home; free to children younger than 16

• Highlights: Roosevelt's home, called "Springwood;" Roosevelt's Oval Office desk; replica of the White House Map Room; his 1936 Phaeton Ford automobile, equipped with hand controls so he could drive it despite his polio; a wheelchair Roosevelt designed.

Herbert Hoover Library and Museum

210 Parkside Drive, West Branch, Iowa

• Phone: (319) 643-5301

• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (open until 8 p.m. Wednesdays in July and August)

• Admission: $6; $3 for seniors; free for ages 15 and under

• Highlights: The cottage in which Hoover was born; his father's blacksmith shop; a Quaker meeting house; a pioneer schoolhouse; a chunk of the Berlin Wall; and a replica of Hoover's living room from his post-presidential days at the Waldorf Towers in New York.

---

On the Net

For more information on these libraries, go to www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries