George W. Bush Presidential Library

The George W. Bush Presidential Library opened in 2013 on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the thirteenth and, for now, the last of the federal presidential libraries. Built in red Texas brick to harmonize with the university and certified for its environmental design, it sits beside the Bush Institute, the policy arm of the complex.

No event dominates the collections like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The museum displays twisted steel beams recovered from the World Trade Center and traces the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and the financial crisis of 2008 that closed his second term. It also documents his work on education and on combating AIDS in Africa.

The museum's signature feature is the "Decision Points Theater," an interactive exhibit that puts visitors in the president's place during crises — the Iraq invasion, the Katrina response, the financial bailout — feeding them the intelligence Bush had and asking what they would do, before revealing his choice. It is the clearest attempt by any presidential library to dramatize the burden of the office rather than simply narrate it.

A full-scale Oval Office and a piece of the White House's Rose Garden round out a complex that, like its predecessors, blends archive, museum, and active policy institute on a single campus.