“Did they tell you President Obama was coming?” Pete Souza asked the crowd at Unity Temple last night, remarking on the fact that nearly 1,000 people had flocked into the auditorium to hear him speak.

Souza, the official White House photographer of Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, enthralled the audience with hilarious stories of White House practical jokes, insider experience sitting in every single Situation Room meeting of the Obama presidency and his poignant retelling of the days following the Sandy Hook massacre. He showed just a few of the nearly 2 million photos that he took during his eight years as Obama’s Chief Photographer, sharing behind-the-scenes stories of the photos of each. The crowd walked away with an insider’s look at both the presidency and Obama himself. Read More

The World’s Emergency Famine, Herbert Hoover’s Mission, and the Invisible Year, 1946

Welcome guest blogger Dr. Lisa Payne Ossian, who recently received a Research Grant to explore the archives at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum thanks to the generosity of Truman Library Institute members and donors. Dr. Ossian traveled to the Truman Library to research the famine following World War II and wrote the following about her research.

“At President Truman’s request, Herbert Hoover had travelled 50,000 miles through 38 countries.
Few men except the starving themselves knew so much about food–and famine.”  – Time, 8 July 1946 Read More

Each year some two dozen historians, writers and scholars receive Research Grants to explore the archives at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. These prestigious research grants are made possible thanks to the generosity of Truman Library Institute members and donors.

Donors have made it possible for the Truman Library Institute to give out nearly $2.7 million over the years for researchers all over the world to travel to Independence to immerse themselves in archival research and further our understanding of the Truman era. Read More