August 30, 2026
Click here for Part I of this story.
Long story short: I was recently contacted by a photographer, Peter Adams, working on a book about holdings in presidential libraries, and he was considering including the shovel and Daddy’s letter in the book. It turns out that at some point, the shovel and letter are now resident at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, which is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C.
Perhaps at least partly due to the several-month delay in my receiving Peter’s email because of a glitch in my website, the photos of the shovel and letter did not make the cut for the book. Peter sent me the photos, however, and has given me permission to reproduce them here. His book, not in print yet at this writing, looks amazing, and so I include information on how to pre-order. The photographs he provided are below. The living descendants of my father had never seen these items before.
POTUS: Icons, Artifacts, and History That Shaped the American Presidency by Peter Adams, coming November 17, 2026 from Abrams Books,
Pre-Order: potusphotobook.com
Richmond Narratives 