Sam Rayburn, Texas State Representative, was the Speaker of the House for 49 years. He is still the longest serving Speaker of the House and served under Presidents from Woodrow Wilson to John Kennedy.
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| All the Presidents |
On display in the museum are personal memorabilia, such as furniture, photographs, paintings and other items. Also housed at the library are the Congressional records from 1774 to 1980. Congressional records are the official documents of Congress sessions. Many scholars travel to the museum to study these important documents that chronicles the young Nation from the very beginning to the end of the 20th Century.
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| records from 1780 |
Mr. Rayburn, was an avid reader, and his personal library is also on display at the museum. In order to know which book he had already read, he started writing his initials on page 99 of each of his books.
Dear Friend posed with her beautiful blue nail polish to show his initials on page 99 of these two books.
Another interesting item on display is the Speaker's rostrum that was used from
1857-1950.
A beautiful chandelier hangs in the reproduction of Mr. Speaker's office that has an interesting story. Theodore Roosevelt, was refurbishing the White House lighting fixtures to modern gas lightning and this chandelier was placed in storage. Sam eventually requested the chandelier for his office. Later it was presented to him so that it could be hung at the museum.
Pam, our Tour Guide, was very knowledgeable and shared lots of interesting tidbits of
Mr. Rayburn, the museum and his relationship to the community.
There is no entrance fee to tour the museum but donations are appreciated.
A USS ballistic submarine was named for Sam Rayburn. It was commissioned in 1964 and decommissioned in 1989.
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| anchor of sub on display in front yard |
After the tour, we drove back to the town square and the Travelling Toe took some pictures of the Fannin County Courthouse....it will be featured in a separate post.
We made a quick stop at an antique shop, "My Clutter" located on the town square. The Travelling Toe found a cute little cup and saucer as a souvenir of the trip.
From downtown Bonham, we took State Highway 121 to find some grub. We stopped for a burger at "Muddbones". For $7.00 you can get a hamburger, with all the usual fixings, plus a bag of chips and a drink from the cooler. Just a tad disappointed there were no fries but sorrow was drowned in the very yummy bag of Cheetos.
After lunch we went on our way to visit the Sam Rayburn House.
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| rose garden at the museum |
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