Memorabilia Arrive for Clinton Library

In the hours before dawn, 50 tons of President Clinton’s memorabilia were unloaded into an old Little Rock auto dealership remodeled to store the country’s largest presidential collection. The first shipment for the Clinton Presidential Library contained paintings, antiques, books and gifts from the heads of state of foreign countries, said Skip Rutherford, coordinator of the privately funded $25-million project. Several other shipments will follow until Clinton officially leaves the White House on Jan. 20. In total, the collection will contain 77 million pages, 9 million photographs and 75,000 artifacts. The National Archives, which will run the library, hopes to open the collection to the public by 2003.