The Harry S Truman Library and Museum is dedicated to preserving papers, books, and other historical materials relating to the 33rd President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Harry S Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

. It is located on a small hill

Hill

A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...

 facing U.S. Highway 24 in Independence, Missouri

Independence, Missouri

Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...

, Truman's hometown.

It was the first presidential library

Presidential library

In the United States, the Presidential library system is a nationwide network of 13 libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration...

 to be created under the provisions of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act, and is one of twelve presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration

National Archives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...

.

Design

The lead architect of the project was Edward F. Neild. Truman had picked Neild in the 1930s to design the renovation of the Independence

Jackson County Courthouse (Independence, Missouri)

The Jackson County Courthouse in Independence, Missouri is located on Independence Square at Main & Maple Street in Independence....

 and construction of the Kansas City Jackson County Courthouses after Truman was impressed with Neild's work on the Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Caddo Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Shreveport; as of 2000, the population was 252,161...

, Courthouse in Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....

. Neild was among the architects of the Truman White House reconstruction.

Neild died on July 6, 1955, at the Kansas City Club

Kansas City Club

The Kansas City Club, founded in 1882 and located in the Library District of Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA, is the oldest existing gentlemen's club in Missouri. The Club began admitting women members in 1975. Along with the River Club on nearby Quality Hill, it is one of two surviving...

 while working on the design.

Truman had initially wanted the building to resemble his grandfather Solomon Young's house in Grandview, Missouri

Grandview, Missouri

Grandview is a city in Jackson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 24,475 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Grandview is located at , along U.S...

.

In response to a New York Times review that recalled Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

 influences in the library's horizontal design, Truman was reported to have said, "It's got too much of that fellow in it to suit me."

Built on a hill overlooking the Kansas City skyline on land donated by the City of Independence, the Truman Library was dedicated on July 6, 1957, in a ceremony which included the Masonic

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 Rites of Dedication; those attending the ceremony included former President Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

, Chief Justice Earl Warren

Earl Warren

Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...

, and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

.

A $23 million dollar renovation of the entire facility was completed in 2001 on a design by architects Gould Evans. The changes included the extensive use of glass in the relatively windowless structure and significantly altering the space between Truman's grave and the museum.

Truman presence

Truman had his office in Room 1107 of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City covers the 10th District of the Federal Reserve, which includes Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and portions of western Missouri and northern New Mexico. The Bank has branches in Denver, Oklahoma City, and Omaha. The current president is...

 at 925 Grand

925 Grand

925 Grand is the former headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and was the oldest building in active use of any Federal Reserve Bank. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007....

 from when he left the Presidency in 1953 until the library opened in 1957.

Truman actively participated in the day-to-day operation of the Library, personally training museum docents and conducting impromptu "press conferences" for visiting school students. He frequently arrived before the staff and would often answer the phone to give directions and answer questions, telling surprised callers that he was the "man himself."

From the time the Library opened, President Truman maintained a working office there, often working five or six days a week. In the office, he wrote articles, letters, and his book Mr. Citizen. He met with Presidents Hoover, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with other notable Americans like Jack Benny, Ginger Rogers, Robert F. Kennedy, Thomas Hart Benton, and Dean Acheson. Long a favorite of museum visitors, the office was viewed through a window from the library's courtyard. A $1.6 million dollar preservation and restoration of Truman's working office was completed in 2009 and features an enclosed limestone pavilion for better access and viewing. The office appears today just as it did when Harry Truman died on December 26, 1972.

President Truman's funeral services were held in the Library's auditorium and he was buried in the courtyard. His wife, Bess Truman

Bess Truman

Bess Truman , was the wife of Harry S. Truman and First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953.-Early life:...

, was buried alongside him in 1982. Their daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, was a longtime member of the Truman Library Institute's board of directors. After her death in January 2008, Margaret's cremated remains and those of her late husband, Clifton Daniel

Clifton Daniel

Elbert Clifton Daniel Jr. was managing editor of the New York Times from 1964 to 1969. Before assuming the top editorial job at the paper, he served as the paper's London and Moscow bureau chief....

 (who had died in 2000), were also interred in the Library's courtyard. The president's grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, is currently honorary co-chair of the Institute's board of directors.

Museum Components

The museum offers an introductory film on the life of President Truman, and two floors of exhibits relating his life and presidency through photographs, artifacts, film clips, documents, and memorabilia. It was the first presidential library to contain a full scale replica of the Oval Office, a feature that has been copied by the Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton libraries. The library also contains The White House Decision Center, an educational program in which school students take on the roles of President Truman and his advisors facing real-life historical decisions in a recreation of the West Wing of the White House. The mural Independence and the Opening of The West by Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton (painter)

Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...

 adorns the walls of the lobby entrance. The mural, completed in 1961, was painted on site by Benton over a three-year span.

Notable events

On 11 December 2006, former United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 Secretary-General

United Nations Secretary-General

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....

 Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

 gave his final speech as Secretary-General at the library, where he encouraged the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to return to the multilateralist

Multilateralism

Multilateralism is a term in international relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue.International organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization are multilateral in nature...

 policies of Truman.

The Truman Library was also the site of the signing of the Medicare Act

Social Security Act of 1965

The Social Security Amendments of 1965 was legislation in the United States whose most important provisions resulted in creation of two programs: Medicare and Medicaid. The legislation initially provided federal health insurance for the elderly and for poor families. While President Lyndon B...

 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.

The Library has been visited by many prominent persons, including Presidents Ford, Carter, and Clinton, and Presidential Nominees John Kerry and John McCain.

External links

• Official website
• Newsreel clip of dedication of Truman Library, from the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  
• Harry Truman and Independence, Missouri: "This is Where I Belong", a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan