Among the thousands of objects in the museum collection are artifacts from regular voters inspired by the former president. See why they decided to give back to Obama.Show Caption
CHICAGO – A crown at the newly opened Obama Presidential Center came nowhere near the former president’s head yet it holds a prominent seat at the museum exactly for that reason.The piece, a child’s plastic tiara that sits overlooking a recreated Oval Office, does not honor President Barack Obama per se. It calls attention to the unsung, impactful relationships the 44th president cultivated with everyday Americans, people inspired by Obama who in turn motivated him.According to the museum’s director, the piece gets at the very heart of what they hope the museum accomplishes: To be a place that inspires hope of a brighter future for the nation and demonstrates change comes from ordinary people working together, not one great man."As he said in his farewell address , this isn’t about his ability to make change but about the ability in all of us," Valerie Jarrett, the Obama Foundation CEO and longtime friend of the former first family, told USA TODAY. "The purpose of the museum is to highlight the stories throughout the history of our country, beginning with the Declaration of Independence, of the ordinary people who believed in something bigger than themselves that led to change in our country and ultimately President Obama."Among such objects at the museum are the plastic tiara which came from an Obama administration literacy event for unhoused Black girls, the beret of a U.S. Army Ranger wounded in Afghanistan whom Obama befriended and a cape worn by a Girl Scout who pursued engineering following a White House science fair.Some of Jarrett’s favorites in the collection are the tchotchkes Obama kept on the campaign trail in 2007. They include an apparent ancient Greek coin, a United States Marine Corps memorial bracelet and a marble-sized silvery globe. She recalled him taking out each to tell her its story."Each one is a reminder of why he does what he does," Jarrett said. "They ground him and inspire him and make him try harder to make the world a better place."The museum, located on Chicago’s South Side near where the Obama family lived, opens Juneteenth. The massive campus includes a basketball gym, library and the museum, a 225-foot behemoth with picturesque views of Lake Michigan, the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Jackson Park and the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught Constitutional Law. Hundreds of objects are on display in the four-story, 38,000 square-foot museum. They include artifacts that date back to great moments of change in the country’s history, among them a postcard from a civil rights worker killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, up to objects from the Obama years, including his Nobel Peace Prize and the many objects donated by everyday Americans inspired by the president.Hope underwaterWhole displays at the museum are dedicated to capturing the fervor felt across the nation in 2007 when Obama was first running for the presidency.Items include hand-painted Barack Obama rocks, an Obama O’s cereal box and a red, white and blue athlete’s swimsuit that reads Obama-Biden across the front.Swimming leaves little time for talking, Brittany Beauchan, the former athlete behind the piece, told USA TODAY. In order to show her support for Obama in the pool, she and a teammate came up with the swimsuit."The way we could articulate our support and be a little stylish while doing it was through what we wore," the former UCLA swimmer said over the phone from her native Hawaii.Beauchan, now a teacher, went to the same high school on Oʻahu as the former president: Punahou School in Honolulu. She liked Obama after seeing in him a tendency to put the group before himself. That mentality is central to being Hawaiian, Beauchan said.Beauchan held onto the suit and when the Obama museum was launched, she moved to donate the piece as a thanks for the positive impact the fellow Punahou grad had on her life.Obama had a direct material impact on her life, she says, by expanding healthcare coverage, allowing her to attend graduate school. But she was inspired to donate the suit to the museum for the more profound influence he had on her life, that of inspiring her to participate in civic life. That influence began, she says, with the swimsuit which brought her into conversation with more people, including Obama critics. "It's critical that people remain civically engaged, you need to show up daily with that kind of hope within your own community," Beauchan said. "Even though I have never met President Obama, he’s been in my orbit and in my life and has played a critical part in decisions I've made."Princess for a dayLauren Mim is a former Obama administration staffer who decided to give to the museum collection. The plastic tiara looking in on the Oval Office was her donation.The piece comes from an event Mims planned in her White House role of improving education for Black girls. At the event, unhoused Black girls decked out in princess outfits came to the Department of Education for a day of reading.Mims, today an NYU psychology professor, says the small moment crystalized for her the idea of being president to everyone in the nation."The Obama administration is everyone’s administration, and it doesn't mean some people, but all people and it was a momentous moment to open the door for girls who are not normally attending events like that," Mims said. "It represented what the Obama administration was all about." Mims decided to donate the tiara as a reminder of that ethos and out of the belief that such small moments can have an outsized impact on the lives of the people they touch.'Supergirls'Emery and Avery Dodson, sisters from Oklahoma, are among the young people who got to experience such White House events. Each participated in a White House science fair through their Girl Scout troupe.Emery says she had no concept of the significance of being in the same room as the president at the time. She was around age 6. "I think I was like picking a scab on my arm when he was talking and when he was asking about it," Dodson, 17, said, referring to Obama reviewing the group’s Lego robotics device used to turn the pages of a book.But the rising senior hoping to study microbial engineering at Oklahoma State University said the experience left an impression on the troupe girls."There’s a reason everybody who attended that day is planning to go into these really prestigious careers," said Dodson, referring to STEM careers. Her older sister Avery, now at the Colorado School of Mines, said going to an earlier Obama White House science fair left a similar impression on her fellow girl scouts."That’s what got me into being a mechanical engineer in the first place," said Avery, a rising junior. "I remember being in the room with all the other people who were there with their complicated robots and aspiring to everything that they had accomplished, I want to be able to do that one day."The sisters donated part of their outfits from their White House days: Avery a tiara not currently on display at the museum and Emery a cape. The girls called themselves the "supergirls."Their mother, Suzanne Dodson, said the family hopes that the donated objects will inspire others to do what they felt the former president did: inspire young people to dream big."Remembering that Obama took the time to be present for these little girls should be an example to the rest of us," said Dodson, adding that what the former president did is rare among the nation’s leaders. "If people in leadership are not going to take the time to mentor in this way, then the rest of us need to step up and be there to inspire and work with young people."
