Truman Library Institute Announces New Season of Programs | May 1, 2023
Annual Favorites and All-New Events Celebrate Leadership, Legacy and America’s Democracy
The Truman Library Institute has announced a new season of Truman Legacy events, Members-only experiences and public programs. This stellar line-up offers extraordinary access and insights into our history, the American presidency, Truman’s legacy and American democracy. For full details, or to reserve seats, please visit our events page.
BOOK EVENT
THE BOOK OF CHARLIE
FEATURING DAVID VON DREHLE
7 p.m., Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th Street, Kansas City, MO
One of our nation’s most prominent writers finds the truth about how to live a long and happy life in the centenarian next door.
When a veteran Washington journalist, moved to Kansas, he met a new neighbor who was more than a century old. Born before radio, Charlie lived long enough to use a smartphone. When a shocking tragedy interrupted his idyllic boyhood, Charlie mastered survival strategies that reflect thousands of years of human wisdom. Thus armored, Charlie’s sense of adventure carried him on an epic journey across the continent, and later found him swinging across bandstands of the Jazz Age, racing aboard ambulances through Depression-era gangster wars, improvising techniques for early open-heart surgery, and cruising the Amazon as a guest of Peru’s president.
David Von Drehle came to understand that Charlie’s resilience and willingness to grow made this remarkable neighbor a master in the art of thriving through times of dramatic change. As a gift to his children, he set out to tell Charlie’s secrets. The Book of Charlie is a gospel of grit—the inspiring story of one man’s journey through a century of upheaval. The history that unfolds through Charlie’s story reminds you that the United States has always been a divided nation, a questing nation, an inventive nation—a nation of Charlies in the rollercoaster pursuit of a good and meaningful life.
Co-presented by Rainy Day Books. Tickets include two admissions and one hardcover copy of The Book of Charlie.
MEMBERS-ONLY
MEMBERS NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
Thursday, June 8, 2023
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
Members are invited to attend an exclusive after-hours event at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum. Enjoy a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception, live jazz, a Truman green screen photo booth, hand-dipped Poppy’s Ice Cream, and private access to the temporary exhibition, Rooted among the Ashes. Plus, double your Member discount in the “Buck Stops Here” Museum Store.
Invitations are issued exclusively to active membership holders. Join, renew or upgrade now to activate year-long benefits, including the 2023 Members Night in the Museum.
DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES
A FREE WORLD WITH UNITY: THE URGENT LESSONS OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT
FEATURING GARRY KASPAROV
6 p.m. Thursday, June 15, 2023
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
Join us for an extraordinary event featuring world chess champion, author and pro-democracy leader, Garry Kasparov. The Berlin Airlift, launched 75 years ago this June, was a tremendous practical achievement as well as a potent example of individual and collective leadership and courage. With Russia’s war on Ukraine raging and China increasingly aggressive, Kasparov calls for an immediate renewal of the resolve shown by President Harry Truman to stand up to belligerent authoritarian regimes on every front.
SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN
THE 1948 ELECTION AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA’S SOUL
6 p.m., Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
New York Times best-selling author A. J. Baime shares one of the greatest election stories of all time. On the eve of the 1948 election, America was a fractured country. Racism was rampant, foreign relations were fraught, and political parties were more divided than ever. In Dewey Defeats Truman, Baime sheds light on one of the most action-packed six months in American history, as Truman not only triumphs, but oversees watershed events–the passing of the Marshall plan, the acknowledgement of Israel as a new state, the careful attention to the origins of the Cold War, and the first desegregation of the military. Truman not only won the election but also succeeded in guiding this nation forward, at a critical time with haunting parallels to the modern day.
TEMPORARY EXHIBITION
ROOTED AMONG THE ASHES
HIBAKUJUMOKU / A-BOMBED TREES
Now through October 1, 2023
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum proudly presents Rooted among the Ashes: Hibakujumoku / A-bombed Trees, featuring the photography of Katy McCormick. Having explored Japan’s two Atomic-bombed cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, McCormick’s photography portrays the survivor trees or hibakujumoku, subjected to the first use of atomic bombs in 1945. Standing in school yards, temple grounds, and city squares, the A-bombed trees are living memorials, rooted among the ashes just below the surfaces of now-thriving cities. Predicated on “walking and remembrance,” the exhibition invites a promenade through space and time, memory and history, urging reflection upon how the past haunts the present—warning, teaching, urging care.
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