Early in his administration, Carter indicated interest in having his presidential library be built in Georgia. The site chosen was in the
Poncey–Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, on land that had been acquired by the state of
Georgia Department of Transportation, for an
interchange between two redundant highways that were cancelled by Carter when he was
governor of Georgia, in response to the
Atlanta freeway revolts. (See
Interstate 485,
Georgia 400,
Interstate 675, and the
Stone Mountain Freeway.) The Atlanta firm of
Jova/Daniels/Busby was selected as architects, in cooperation with Lawton/Umemura/Yamamoto of Hawaii. During design and construction, Carter's papers were temporarily housed at the former post office building in downtown Atlanta. The first director of the library and museum was Dr. Donald Schewe, who originally assisted with the transfer and processing of the Carter Administration materials at the end of Carter's term in early 1981. Since 2015, the current director is Dr.
Meredith Evans, an Atlanta native who had held various leadership positions in special collections and libraries in institutions such as
Washington University in St. Louis and
George Washington University. The library and museum offers free admission to all students 16 and under. They can either go on a docent or self-guided tour. Together the library and The Coca-Cola Foundation have established funding for the library to provide transportation funds for all Georgia schools to use when bringing students to the museum for education activities. Following her death,
Rosalynn Carter laid in repose at the library on November 27, 2023. A year later, Jimmy Carter was also laid in repose at the library from January 4 to 7 before being flown to Washington, D.C. for the
state funeral. == See also ==