The Quayle Vice Presidential Museum (Huh?)

I'm sure most people know about the various Presidential libraries/museums out there, but what about the Vice Presidents?

Well, believe it or not, there is a Vice Presidential museum. It is located in Huntington, Indiana, which was the hometown of James Danforth Quayle. Dan Quayle, as you may recall, was the 44th Vice President under George H. W. Bush. (1989-1993)

The Quayle Vice Presidential museum opened on June 17, 1993 and in early 2002 the name was changed to The Dan Quayle Center, home of the United States Vice Presidential Museum. The upper floor of the museum houses the Quayle collection, while the lower floor has artifacts of one sort or another from all 47 Vice Presidents.

The above photo was taken of a 1780's newspaper on display at the museum. It lists the first Presidential and Congressional salaries. Note that the Senators and Representatives got a whopping 6 dollars per day. Of course, even this is excessive pay for the current crop of worthless legislators we have in Congress, on both sides of the aisle. (Also, the VP salary was only one fifth that of the President)

This next photo is of some of the main floor exhibits. The Quayle exhibit has many excellent artifacts, including this shirt worn by young Dan, as well as his dog chewed law degree.

The small gift shop has some nice, reasonably priced, items but does not include Mr. Potatoe Head toys or any Dick Cheney autographed miniature water boards. (sorry lefties, you'll just have to keep waiting for those)

Some of us remember all too well the pounding that 'ol Dan took at the hands of the media for a few minor gaffes. However, the Vice President was not the goofball he has been portrayed as. Here is some boiler plate bio:

"In 1976, Quayle was elected by a margin to the House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th congressional district, defeating eight-term incumbent Democrat J. Edward Roush. He won reelection in 1978 by the greatest percentage margin ever achieved to that date in the northeast Indiana district. In 1980, at age 33, Quayle became the youngest person ever elected to the Senate from the state of Indiana, defeating three-term incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh. Making Indiana political history again, Quayle was reelected to the Senate in 1986 with the largest margin ever achieved to that date by a candidate in a statewide Indiana race. His 1986 victory was notable because several other Republican Senators elected in 1980 were not returned to office."

Dan Quayle has written three books, Standing Firm, The American Family: Discovering the Values that Make Us Strong and Worth Fighting for. Standing Firm was a best seller. He currently runs a division of Cerebus Capital Management, is President of Quayle and Associates and is an Honorary Trustee Emeritus of the Hudson Institute.

Daniel Johns is the museum's Executive Director and Maddie Shaw is his Administrative Assistant. The museum conducts educational outreach to students in Indiana and several neighboring states. The museum staff is friendly and personable.

If you have an interest in U.S. and Presidential history, it is well worth a visit. Who knew?

http://www.quaylemuseum.org/ for more info on this nifty museum.