The White House, South Facade. Courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons User: Wadester16

Public Interest Programming

Television Productions for Presidential Libraries

The nonprofit mission of Clarendon Foundation includes:

Producing, acquiring, and disseminating noncommercial cultural and educational programming, and related instructional and informational content; and

Providing public interest programming and production assistance to Public, Educational, and Governmental Access Channels.

Clarendon Foundation has assisted three Presidential Libraries with the production and distribution of documentaries and special event recordings. Copies of the documentaries and recordings are provided to the Library of Congress.

The Foundation is currently planning to launch a nationwide public information and programming channel for the digital delivery of extraordinary content about American history, culture, and values. The channel, TV America, will be multicast online as full screen video when the new Internet Protocols are adopted in 2011, and also carried by satellite and cable subscription television services.

Waging Peace: President Jimmy Carter

In 1999, Clarendon Foundation contributed funding and provided fundraising assistance to an independent production company for a documentary about Jimmy Carter, “Waging Peace.” The theme of the program was the work performed by the Carter Center, after President Carter left office.

The Carter Center, founded by Jimmy Carter in 1982, is a private, non-governmental, nonprofit organization to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering. It is the only Presidential library that has developed private assistance programs for developing countries in agriculture, healthcare, and election monitoring. It is currently working in 70 countries. President Carter also supports the Habitat for Humanity home ownership program.


Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, Official White House Portrait, Public Domain		The Carter Presidential Center, Atlanta, Georgia. Courtesy of Creative Commons at Wikipedia About the Jimmy Carter Library The Jimmy Carter Library consists of an archives and a museum and is approximately 69,750 square feet in size. This includes 15,269 square feet of exhibit space and 19,818 square feet of collection storage space. It is not a library in the usual sense but is a research facility and a museum. The archive is a repository of approximately 27 million pages of Jimmy Carter's White House material, papers of administration associates, including documents, memoranda, correspondence, etc. There are also 1/2 million photographs, and hundreds of hours film, audio and video tape.

The Ronald Reagan Freedom Award

In 2008, Clarendon Foundation produced a video for The Ronald Reagan Foundation of its annual Freedom Award presentation in Washington, DC. The Award was presented to Natan Sharansky by former First Lady Nancy Reagan. Sharansky is a former Soviet dissident, political prisoner, and Israeli politician. The presentation was made at a Gala Dinner at The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Wednesday, September 17, 2008.

Mr. Sharansky was the tenth recipient of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation's highest recognition. The other recipients are Mikhail Gorbachev, General Colin Powell, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, His Majesty King Hussein I, Lady Margaret Thatcher, Reverend Billy Graham, Bob Hope, Rudolph Giuliani and President George H. W. Bush.

Mr. Sharansky, a Jewish activist in the human rights movement in the Former Soviet Union, was imprisoned for 9 years. He was freed in 1986 as part of an East-West prisoner exchange orchestrated by President Reagan. In 2005, Sharansky was listed as number 11 on Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in the “Scientists and Thinkers” category.

For more information, see: Press Release:Natan Sharansky to Receive Ronald Reagan Freedom Award.


Ronald W. Reagan, 40th President of the United States Official White House Portrait (1985). Courtesy: Ronald Reagan Library		The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Courtyard View, Simi Valley Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library About the Reagan Foundation The Reagan Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Center for Public Affairs, the Presidential Learning Center and the Air Force One Pavilion. Located in Simi Valley, California, the Library houses over 55 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential and personal papers and over 100,000 gifts and artifacts chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It now also serves as the final resting place of America’s 40th President.

George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Leader

In 1996, Clarendon Foundation assisted the Prospect Foundation on a project to produce a documentary about the life of the 41st President, entitled “George Bush: The Making of a Leader.” Dr. Franmarie Kennedy, President of Prospect Foundation, was the Executive Producer and fundraiser for the project. The documentary was aired by The History Channel during its live coverage of the dedication of the George Bush Presidential Library in November, 1997. The 68 minute production contains interviews with Bush Administration officials, military officers, and foreign leaders including James Baker, Norman Schwarzkauf, Colin Powell, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada. Family members George Bush’s wife Barbara, son George, and brother Jonathan.

National Archives: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Opens

Press Release: Bush Library Celebrates Anniversary of Dedication

Title Screen from Documentary shown on History Channel at the Dedication of the Bush Presidential Library (1997)


George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States Official White House Portrait, Public Domain		George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, Texas. Courtesy Creative Commons at Wikipedia

About the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

The library and museum is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the preservation, research, and exhibition of official records, personal papers, and memorabilia of George H. W. Bush. Included are the main gallery space dedicated to The Life and Times of George Bush and a changing exhibit gallery. The first exhibit in this space documented the life of President and Mrs. Bush since the White House, with memorabilia that included the parachute used in his 1997 jump with the U.S. Army Golden Knights in Arizona. Other exhibits that have been features were: Flexing the Nation's Muscle; The Longest Winter: Berlin and the Cold War; Christmas in the White House; Barbara Bush: An Extraordinary Journey; Trains: Tracks of the Iron Horse, The White House in Miniature, Born to Play Ball, and Beyond the Moon: NASA's Continuing Mission.