everyday Americans – At the newly opened Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, small donated objects—like a plastic tiara, a donated swimsuit, and Girl Scout science fair wear—make the point that change, in the museum’s telling, came through ordinary people and the relationships B
CHICAGO — A child’s plastic tiara hangs in the newly opened Obama Presidential Center, perched overlooking a recreated Oval Office. It doesn’t sit there to commemorate Barack Obama directly. The museum says it’s there because the former president’s most meaningful impact often came through the unsung connections he built with everyday Americans—connections that. in turn. motivated them to show up for their communities.
Valerie Jarrett. the Obama Foundation CEO and a longtime friend of the former first family. described the donation-driven collection as the core of the center’s mission. “As he said in his farewell address. this isn’t about his ability to make change but about the ability in all of us. ” she said. “The purpose of the museum is to highlight the stories throughout the history of our country. beginning with the Declaration of Independence. of the ordinary people who believed in something bigger than themselves that led to change in our country and ultimately President Obama.”.
The center—located on Chicago’s South Side near where the Obama family lived—opens Juneteenth. The campus includes a basketball gym. library. and the museum itself: a 225-foot building with views of Lake Michigan. Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Jackson Park. and the University of Chicago. where Obama once taught Constitutional Law. The museum spans four stories and covers 38,000 square feet, with hundreds of objects on display.
Among them are artifacts tied to moments the museum treats as turning points for the country. The displays reach back to great episodes of change. including a postcard from a civil rights worker killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. and then extend into the Obama years with items like his Nobel Peace Prize and the many objects donated by everyday Americans inspired by the president.
The “everyday” side of the story appears in the smallest details. One of Jarrett’s reported favorites in the collection is a set of tchotchkes Obama kept on the campaign trail in 2007: an apparent ancient Greek coin. a United States Marine Corps memorial bracelet. and a marble-sized silvery globe. Jarrett recalled him pulling each item out to tell the story behind it. “Each one is a reminder of why he does what he does,” she said. “They ground him and inspire him and make him try harder to make the world a better place.”.
That theme runs through the museum objects donated by people who say they encountered Obama—or the message he carried—at events that didn’t feel designed for history.
In Hawaii. for example. Brittany Beauchan—then a UCLA swimmer—held onto an Obama-themed swimsuit she said was created so she and a teammate could show support in the pool. The swimsuit, later donated for the museum, reads “Obama-Biden” across the front. She told the story in a phone call from her native Hawaii. “The way we could articulate our support and be a little stylish while doing it was through what we wore. ” she said.
Beauchan has since become a teacher. and she went to Punahou School in Honolulu. the same high school on Oʻahu as Obama. She said she liked him after seeing “a tendency to put the group before himself. ” a mentality she linked to being Hawaiian. She described how healthcare changes affected her directly, saying Obama expanded healthcare coverage and allowed her to attend graduate school. But Beauchan said her deeper reason for donating the suit was the influence she says he had on her civic life.
She said the swimsuit helped pull her into conversations with more people, including critics of Obama. “It’s critical that people remain civically engaged. you need to show up daily with that kind of hope within your own community. ” Beauchan said. “Even though I have never met President Obama. he’s been in my orbit and in my life and has played a critical part in decisions I’ve made.”.
On the Chicago stage. another object points to the museum’s focus on who got invited into the former administration’s orbit. The tiara in the recreated Oval Office. per the museum’s account. came from a donation by Lauren Mims. a former Obama administration staffer. Today, she is an NYU psychology professor. She said the piece came from an event she planned in her White House role of improving education for Black girls.
At that event. unhoused Black girls decked out in princess outfits came to the Department of Education for a day of reading. Mims said the small moment crystallized the idea of being president “to everyone in the nation.” “The Obama administration is everyone’s administration. and it doesn’t mean some people. but all people and it was a momentous moment to open the door for girls who are not normally attending events like that. ” she said. “It represented what the Obama administration was all about.”.
For Mims, the donation wasn’t only about a keepsake. She said she wanted the tiara to serve as a reminder that small moments can have outsized impact on the lives of the people they touch.
The museum also highlights the energy around Obama’s 2007 run for president through objects tied to what it calls the fervor felt across the nation at that moment. Items mentioned in the collection include hand-painted Barack Obama rocks. an Obama O’s cereal box. and a red. white and blue athlete’s swimsuit that reads “Obama-Biden” across the front.
For Emery and Avery Dodson of Oklahoma, the connection comes through Girl Scouts and science fairs. Each sister participated in a White House science fair through their Girl Scout troupe. Emery said she was around age 6 at the time and didn’t fully grasp what it meant to be in the same room as the president. “I think I was like picking a scab on my arm when he was talking and when he was asking about it. ” Dodson. 17. said. referring to Obama reviewing the group’s Lego robotics device used to turn the pages of a book.
Even if the significance wasn’t clear then, the sisters said the experience later shaped their ambitions. Dodson. who is now a rising senior hoping to study microbial engineering at Oklahoma State University. said the day carried a lasting message for the troupe’s future paths into STEM careers. “There’s a reason everybody who attended that day is planning to go into these really prestigious careers,” she said.
Her older sister Avery. now at the Colorado School of Mines. said going to an earlier Obama White House science fair had a similar effect. “That’s what got me into being a mechanical engineer in the first place,” she said. “I remember being in the room with all the other people who were there with their complicated robots and aspiring to everything that they had accomplished. I want to be able to do that one day.”.
The Dodson sisters donated parts of their outfits from their White House days: Avery a tiara not currently on display at the museum and Emery a cape. They said they called themselves the “supergirls.”
Their mother. Suzanne Dodson. said the family hopes the donated objects will inspire others to do what they experienced—what she described as the former president taking time to inspire young people to dream big. “Remembering that Obama took the time to be present for these little girls should be an example to the rest of us. ” she said. adding that she believes such leadership is rare. “If people in leadership are not going to take the time to mentor in this way. then the rest of us need to step up and be there to inspire and work with young people.”.
All together, the museum’s collection ties those personal items to a single idea the center appears to want visitors to feel immediately: the story of a presidency, here, is told through the ordinary people who carried it forward—one donation, one conversation, one small moment at a time.
Obama Presidential Center Chicago Valerie Jarrett Obama Foundation Juneteenth museum opening donated artifacts Oval Office replica Brittany Beauchan Lauren Mims Girl Scouts science fair STEM careers civic engagement