Exploring the new Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, recently completed an extensive renovation to tell the story of President Harry S. Truman in a new and exciting way. Nearly all of the textual materials featured in the exhibit are available to view in the Catalog, so until you can plan your visit to Independence, you can gain a taste of the exhibit by browsing through the featured documents in the National Archives Catalog.
Entrance to the Truman Library. Photo credit Dean Davison
The entirety of Mr. Truman’s life is now all on the main floor of the museum, which allows the exhibit to address Mr. Truman’s presidency within the flow of his life, rather than detaching his family life and upbringing.
An Ordinary Man; His Extraordinary Journey exhibit. Photo by Bruce Mathews
The title of the new permanent exhibit, “Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Journey,” exemplifies this and tries to answer the central question: what allowed Mr. Truman to be successful in his role as President of the United States?
President Truman’s family – his wife, Bess, and daughter, Margaret – played very important roles in his life, and the new exhibit expands coverage of them personally, as well as their life together in Independence, and in Washington, D. C. For the first time, the permanent exhibit features letters written by Bess Truman to Harry, which were only opened to the public in 2014.
The exhibit provides expanded multi-media coverage of World War I, the early days of the Cold War, and President Truman’s 1948 election campaign, along with some of President Truman’s major decisions, including his efforts to advance civil rights and the recognition of Israel. The new permanent exhibit also has greatly expanded coverage of the Korean War. Over the past several years, the Truman Library acquired the collections of two defunct organizations – the Center for the Study of the Korean War and the Korean War National Museum – which provided the Library with the opportunity to tell the story of the Korean War in new ways, with many new artifacts and photos.
One of the artifacts featured here is a letter from General Douglas MacArthur to the mother of a soldier, Stephen Kozlowski, who died in action in 1951 in Korea.
More information about the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum and the “An Ordinary Man, His Extraordinary Journey” are available on the exhibit website. View more of the exhibit materials and featured documents in the National Archives Catalog.
Looking for a more visual way to browse the Catalog for materials from the Presidential Libraries? Try our Presidential Library Explorer! This next generation finding aid allows you to browse NARA’s holdings by Presidential Library, and to explore what is available online through the National Archives Catalog.
a bar that indicates the scanning progress for each Library,
portals for browsing records within each Library organized by format,
portals for descriptions that do not have scans online,
and a call to action for citizen archivists.
Give our Presidential Library Explorer a try! We’d love to hear your feedback about how you may find this tool useful, and how we can further improve it.
Help transcribe materials from the Truman Presidential Library! While many of the materials in the current Truman Library exhibits have been transcribed, there are many other materials from the Truman Library available in the National Archives Catalog to transcribe, including President's Committee on Civil Rights Files, 1945 - 1948. Help us transcribe records pertaining to subjects such as civil rights, lynching, education, discrimination, employment, housing, health, poll taxes, interstate transportation, Jim Crow laws, equality, self-government in the District of Columbia, statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Every word you transcribe helps to make these records more searchable and accessible online. Get started transcribing!
