Barack and Michelle Obama greet first visitors to Presidential Center in Chicago, now open to public

After a star-studded, high profile opening ceremony, the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago is now open to the public Friday.

The eight-story museum sits on a 19-acre campus that includes a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, an events and programming center called the Forum, a brand new playground, parks, gardens, a 58,800 square foot Great Lawn, and a athletic facility called Home Court featuring a NBA regulation basketball court.

Barack and Michelle Obama were on hand, greeting the first visitors to the museum in person, much to their delight and surprise. They also held a reading for children in the center's library branch. 

Inside the museum, visitors will see and hear the 44th president's words just about everywhere. A four-story digital display features important speeches and milestones.

Guests can sit at the president's desk in a full-size replica of the Oval Office, and there's also an exhibit on former first lady Michelle Obama's wardrobe.

During their speeches at Thursday's grand opening extravaganza, Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett and President Barack Obama emphasized that the museum and the center as a whole are not monuments to a man or a presidency, but to the American people and the work everyone has done to defend and advance American democracy.

"You're going to have fun, you're going to learn, you are going to see yourself in the stories that we tell," Jarrett told the crowd.

"If you come for a day and you don't have time to see everything, I would urge you to skip the clips of my speeches — you have heard them all before — in favor of the stories of those ordinary citizens who helped make that change happen," Obama said.

An interactive "We the People" exhibit lets visitors add their name to the screen, with each dot representing one person in a larger image. And at the very top of the towering museum is the Sky Room, with sweeping views of the city framed by words from Obama's "You Are America" speech on the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches.

A Girls Scouts troop from Nashville got an early scoop on the center during a recent visit.

"I feel like, we all took it all in when we came in," said 17-year-old Nora Ensley.

"They can do some incredible, amazing, things. It can start as early as now. And I think that museum kind of brings that forward," said troop leader Phylicia Moye.

And while visitors can find the newest branch of the Chicago Public Library on the campus, what the Obama Presidential Center does not have is a traditional presidential library. The Barack Obama Presidential Library is the first all-digital presidential library available online through the National Archives' Digital Research Room and National Archives Catalog; digital artifacts can be accessed through the National Archives' Digital Artifact Collection. The digital presidential library is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.