Issue date: 1/25/07 Section: News

Spencer Selvidge - THE BATTALION The Tall Texans exhibit is at the Bush Presidential Library Complex. It features Texans ranging from journalists to Nobel Peace Prize winners to Presidents and heroes.

As visitors walked into the 100 Tall Texans exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library Complex, they were surrounded by some of the most influential people of Texas' past and present.

The idea for the 100 Tall Texans exhibit came from an article in 2000 in the Houston Chronicle that profiled 100 influential Texans of the past century. Susie Cox, assistant curator of the Bush Library, expanded on the Chronicle's idea by adding artifacts and photos to enhance the story.

The exhibit features a moon rock, the golf club that Allen Shepard used to hit three balls on the moon and George Foreman's 1994 Heavy Weight Champion of the World belt. It also features Bessie Coleman, the world's first licensed black pilot and Ima Hogg.

One of the pieces in the exhibit is a watercraft that looks like a car, which was owned by former president Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson would drive it around his ranch, pretend to crash it into the river to scare people and then just start driving down the river, Cox said.

The Bush Library expanded the exhibit by adding a hall showcasing 20 more "tall" Texans, including Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Lance Armstrong, Star Trek writer Eugene Roddenberry and Alberto Gonzales.

"Especially if you are a Texan, it will amaze you at what the Texans in the exhibit accomplished," Cox said. "It makes me proud that they are Texans."

The exhibit will be open until March 18.

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