The Carter Center is a large complex set in beautiful grounds housing the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, a museum commemorating Carter's life and presidency, and the center itself, a non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting peace and democracy around the world.
A visit to the Carter Center should start with a walk through the grounds. The center's buildings, all of which look like recently landed UFOs, are set on the top of some lovely rolling hills overlooking two pretty lakes. There's a koi pond containing spectacular fish (rumor has it that they're worth $25,000 each, although it's hard to imagine how you could sell one on the black market) and a sloping Japanese garden. In various places around the grounds there are statues that were given to President Carter to commemorate various good works: these range from a rather comical iron silhouette of an elk, memorializing the creation of some national park in Alaska, to a really moving statue of an old man being led by a young boy, in honor of the Carter Center's work in eradicating river blindness.
The museum, too, is a blend of rather comic politics and real, earnest good works. The exhibits are pretty predictable: information about Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter's childhoods, marriage, and career, culminating in the White House, with exhibits on the various crises’ and achievements during the Carter presidency. These seem to be handled pretty well. Naturally, the museum is not likely to be highly critical of Carter's work, but it doesn't gloss over the problems of the energy or hostage crises. But there's also some fun stuff, including a mock-up of the Oval Office containing a replica of the spectacular carved desk Carter used during his presidency. (The White House still owns the original, which was made out of timber taken from a captured French ship.)
The grounds are lovely and the museum is interesting, but the most appealing and unusual aspect of the Carter Center is not open to tourists. Carter's presidency is long over, but his work goes on, in the form of the Center's many projects promoting sustainable development, health programs, and democratic processes around the world. The center provides mediators to help resolve countries' internal conflicts, sends observers to help ensure fairness in contested elections, and works with medical suppliers to distribute medicine to prevent river blindness and provide treatment for guinea worm (a really loathsome parasite). There's a large internship program, so the enthusiastic young person you run into in the hallway may well be about to fly out to help build the Liberian governmental infrastructure. It's an exciting place.