The Museum of the American Presidency is the only comprehensive
presidential memorabilia collection west of the Mississippi. It
is also the only self-contained history museum located at a high
school. Created entirely without the use of public funds, it is
supported by over one hundred corporate, foundation and private
individual donors. With a collection of over 10,000 items,
spanning almost 200 years of the presidency, our museum is a
unique enrichment tool for all the students of San Diego.
Housed on an interim basis in a remodeled room in the library at
Clairemont High School, our museum is the repository of the
Schwabacher collection, the premiere collection of Woodrow Wilson
material on the West Coast. The collection is lent focus by an
extensive Richard Nixon grouping and our special "Images of
Lincoln" gallery donated by Clairemont Hills Kiwanis in memory of
Walter Kerrigan. Home Depot donated funds for the remodel and
the work was done by Mike Mallow, George Evangelou and two
painters who have asked to remain anonymous.
The most exciting news on the horizon for the museum comes from
Hollywood. Castle Rock Entertainment has pledged to donate all
of the set materials created for the recent Columbia Pictures
release, An American President. This includes exact reproductions
of the Oval office and other rooms in the White House. In order
to understand the magnitude of this donation, it would help to
know that the sets are now stored in a warehouse constructed for
them and stacked on edge they require 15,000 sq.ft of warehouse.
Obviously, we will have to construct an entirely new facility to
house this multi-million dollar "Western White House". We are
convinced that a major donor will make that possible. As the
first tangible manifestation of The BIG Idea at Clairemont, we are
predisposed to think BIG. Please join us to support and enjoy
this effort of students, teachers, parents and community committed
to breakthrough excellence in education.
For more information, write us at:
The BIG Idea
c/o Jim Fletcher
Clairemont High School
4150 Ute Dr.
San Diego, CA 92117
Or Email us!
The Museum has had local TV news coverage on three stations and national coverage
on Cox Communications, as well as a 30 minute tour on C-SPAN.
In addition to television coverage, we have had local print media in four newspapers and national print media
via the Associated Press and Time Magazine for Kids. These articles are available for viewing
at this link or we can fax hard copies at your request. We have also
prepared a 7 minute video which we can send as well.
In addition to this video, we have prepared a scrapbook of articles about the museum, as well pictures of the museum and some of its exhibits.
WARNING! Each page of the scrapbook contains about 90K worth of graphics, so downloading the pages may take awhile. It can be viewed here.
Other documents and information about the Museum can be found here.
