Harry S. Truman once said, “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” Luckily for Hannah Scott and Erin Lowe, there’s a lot of history they know. Armed with their knowledge of history, these two local students recently came home with gold medals from the National History Day competition in Washington, D.C. Read More

When the Trumans moved into the White House in 1945, they soon discovered the old mansion was on the brink of collapse. The floors swayed as they walked on them, joints popped and cracked, and rats even scurried through holes in the walls and across the floors. While Harry, Bess and Margaret Truman all joked in their letters and diary entries about hearing the “ghosts” of presidents past,  these mysterious noises were actually telltale signs that the White House was disintegrating.

The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum is telling the incredible story of the largest White House renovation in history this year through the temporary exhibition Saving the White House: Truman’s Extreme Makeover, on display through 2017. Read More

Andrew Jackson approached the presidency differently from his predecessors. He was the first president from “the West,” and he believed passionately that the president should represent all citizens and not just a few. Harry Truman often listed him as one of his favorite presidents, and admired his desire to represent all Americans. In Jackson’s eight years in office, he was responsible for balancing the federal budget for the first and only time in history and helping to expand the nation’s territory, not without controversy along the way.

Next month we’re welcoming Howard Kittell, President & CEO of Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum for a free public program discussing Jackson’s White House.

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Get Up Close and Personal with Special Artifacts

Get up close and personal with some of the most unique artifacts at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum every Wednesday this summer during White Glove Wednesdays, when an archivist, curator or technician selects a special item not generally on display in the museum. Wednesdays at 11 a.m., museum visitors have the chance to view the items up close, hear more from the experts and ask any questions they may have about the artifacts. Read More

The late, great Harry S. Truman was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe in little plans. You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one.” And his Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri stands testament to the fact he lived by those words.

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum holds many educational exhibits and hosts various events, all aimed at providing a place where the public can learn about this great Democracy, the United States of America. Your membership gift helps maintain this outstanding endeavor for generations to come.

As a member of this great institution, The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum you will be supporting something far more than a library, far more just a museum, you will be joining Harry Truman’s own dream when he built this vast library. You will be helping to provide present and future generations an invaluable place of learning.

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Free museum admission, History Alive! programs, Preamble Challenge and more on
Saturday, September 17

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In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re posting this family story shared by Clifton Truman Daniel at Wild About Harry 2012. Clifton is the oldest grandchild of Harry and Bess Truman and the honorary chairman of the Truman Library institute. Read More

Inside the Vault

The 2016 race to the White House may be remembered as one of the strangest, most contentious presidential elections in history. That’s good news for collectors of campaign memorabilia: historic elections can turn those trinkets into treasures. Take, for instance, a 1.25-inch pin created for Harry Truman’s 1949 inauguration. Thanks to Truman’s surprise defeat of Dewey, that freebies is now selling for $750 on eBay. We saw that pin, and much more, during a recent visit to the Truman Library Collection Room. Take a look…
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Kefauver Defeats Truman

Every four years, presidential hopefuls and political pollsters travel to New Hampshire for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. In January 1952, however, Harry Truman was not campaigning for another term as president. So how did he come in second in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary?

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World War II has become a core aspect of both United States and World History. It is a subject that returns to our minds and hearts annually as lessons from the Holocaust, knowledge of the atomic bomb, and world relations post-war circle back into our news-stream and moral consciousness.

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