Barbara Bush Reads a Book on a Book

Houston, Texas

When Barbara Bush was First Lady (1989-1993) she liked to travel the country, visiting elementary schools, reading to children. Frequently she would be accompanied by one of the Bush family dogs.

When a bronze statue of Barbara Bush was erected in Houston in September 2023, it was placed next to the central branch of the city's library. She was portrayed wearing her ever-present pearls, with a book in her hands and a dog (Millie) at her feet. The First Lady sits on the end of a sofa in a standard pose-with-me statue design. If you look at the end of the sofa, you see that it's really a giant open book! And it's stacked atop a couple of other giant books. The generic blank-paged book in her hands is held aloft as if she's showing it to a group of school kids.

The statue's dedication was attended by members of the Bush family and Houston's mayor, who declared that it would inspire people to "make reading a priority."