In honor of Presidents’ Day and Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, the Davidson Library will host a special exhibition on American presidents.

The display will include manuscripts and other materials about 15 presidents ranging from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush. Davidson will also host lectures from Lou Cannon, a biographer specializing in Reagan, and John Wooley, department chair for UCSB’s Political Science Dept.

According to library assistant Amanda Demeter, the exhibit includes manuscripts from a variety of sources including the Nixon Presidential Photograph Collection and the Marshall Ackerman Collection.

“A lot are from the Wyles Collection, which centers around Lincoln, Americana and western expansion,” said Demeter. “[Other manuscripts are] from the recently acquired Sheinbaum collection.”

Wooley’s presentation will delve into the similarities between Reagan and Obama’s presidencies in addition to the details of the American Presidency Project.

“[Reagan and Obama] both had, after midterm elections, a party control of the Senate but not the House of Representatives,” Wooley said. “They both suffered losses in the midterm election because of unemployment and they both had major accomplishments in midterm policy.”

Wooley said he recommends that students interested in Reagan also attend Cannon’s lecture. Cannon has been featured on NPR, and wrote for the Washington Post for 26 years. He is currently a freelance writer and correspondent for the Politics Daily.

“Anybody that’s interested in the presidency will be interested in [Cannon],” Wooley said. “Lou Cannon is quite a star in knowledge of Ronald Regan. It is fair to say he is one of the world’s reigning experts and is a very good speaker.”

The exhibit will run until April 29. For more information on Wooley and Cannon’s speeches, visit the Davidson Library website at http://www.library.ucsb.edu.

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