Special Collections Photo to be Displayed at Disney World

People traveling to Walt Disney World will have the chance to learn more about our nation's 43rd president, George W. Bush, through the assistance of UTA Libraries. 

A photo in the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery of President Bush, from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection will be featured in the Hall of Presidents attraction at the Magic Kingdom. At the time of the photo, Bush was a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. 

Sara Pezzoni, the photo collections coordinator in Special Collections, stated that Disney contacted her about a month ago about the photo. 

"Disney reached out to us and wanted to use one of our photos of George W. Bush when he was doing an event for the Texas Rangers baseball team," Sara said. "They were looking to display the photo in the Hall of Presidents at the Magic Kingdom right next to the jacket that he was wearing in the photo." 

According to the Walt Disney World website, the Hall of Presidents attraction features a multi-media presentation with animatronic figures of all 45 Presidents of the United States. It is housed inside a building similar to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. 

The photo that will be featured in an exhibit of Bush was taken on Jan. 12, 1991, before he was elected to public office first as Texas Governor and later as President. 

The digital gallery photo description states that Bush, a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, was giving a speech at Arlington Stadium during the "Hands Around Arlington Day." This event promoted a proposal for constructing a new baseball stadium for the Rangers. 

Bush's jacket in the photo is royal blue with red and white stripes around the neckline and wrists. It features the word "Rangers" across the chest. 

The proposal eventually achieved its goal of a new stadium for the baseball team. The Rangers left Arlington Stadium after the 1993 season. They moved into the Ballpark in Arlington, now Choctaw Stadium, for the 1994 season. 

Sara stated that it is great to see that UTA Libraries can help with these types of projects. 

"It's nice to see our collection materials being used beyond our wildest imagination. I would have never thought this photo would have been used there," Sara said. "I'm just so pleased that it (the digital gallery) is reaching people outside of UTA." 

The UTA Libraries Digital Gallery has thousands of photos spanning local, state, national, and UTA history that are free to access online. The gallery can be viewed at https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery.