TRU History | November 26, 2014
Did Harry Truman Pardon the First Turkey?
The official “pardoning” of White House turkeys is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the imagination of the public in recent years. Recently White House mythmakers have claimed that President Harry S. Truman began this amusing holiday tradition. However, the Truman Library & Museum disputes the notion that Truman was the first president to pardon the holiday bird.
TRU History | November 26, 2014
A Turkey-Free Turkey Day?
What do you if you love Thanksgiving but it falls on a day when you can’t eat turkey? In 1947, President Truman faced an awkward dilemma.
A Word from Harry | November 26, 2014
Presidential Messages of Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving from the Truman Library Institute. Because we like our turkey served with extra helpings of history, we searched the archives for Truman’s presidential messages of Thanksgiving. Enjoy these excerpts, and please pass the rolls.
Event Highlights | November 25, 2014
Bill Moyers with Bob Kerrey
Earlier this month, Bill Moyers made an unprecedented encore appearance at the Truman Library Institute’s Howard and Virginia Bennett Forum on the Presidency to share his thoughts on the intertwined presidential legacies of Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson. After making his formal remarks, Moyers sat down with former U.S. Senator for an informal, wide-ranging conversation about his life, liberal politics, and the state of the American presidency. Here are a few highlights from the November 1 event.
TRU Honor | November 21, 2014
We’re Just Wild About This Award!
Event Invitation Takes Top Honors
You could have knocked our socks off when, at Kansas City’s Philly Awards, we were awarded not one but two of the region’s most prestigious nonprofit awards for our 2014 Wild About Harry invitation. We owe a debt of thanks to Design Ranch for helping create an award-winning look and feel not only for our annual fund raising dinner but for our entire TRU Brand. More on that later!
Volunteer at the Truman Library | October 31, 2014
Volunteering Like a Historian
Learn about new opportunities at Volunteer Open House on November 13
The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum has openings for enthusiastic volunteers who love history as much as they love kids. Last spring, the Truman Library piloted an all-new education program for third-grade students, Reading Like a Historian. Modeled after a program designed by the award-winning Stanford History Education Group, the pilot program was an overwhelming success. Now, the Truman Library is looking for volunteers for the Spring 2015 program launch.
A Word from Harry | August 31, 2014
Senator Truman Accepts the Democratic Party’s VP Nomination
Seventy years ago this summer, a world-altering decision was made in Chicago, Illinois. The Democratic Party nominated U.S. Senator Harry Truman – not Vice President Henry Wallace – to be FDRs running mate in the 1944 election. On August 31, Truman gave his formal acceptance speech in his birthplace, Lamar, Missouri. Here’s a bit of what he had to say.
MR. CHAIRMAN, members of the notification committee and fellow citizens:
I am deeply honored to have been named as the Democratic party’s candidate for the Vice-Presidency and accept with humility and a prayer for guidance that I may perform honorably and well whatever tasks are laid before me.
2014 Harry S. Truman Book Award | July 31, 2014
Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism
Henry Wallace’s 1948 bid for the presidency stands as a bold experiment in American third-party politics. Some hail Wallace for challenging the Cold War drift toward “reaction” and “red- baiting.” Others depict Wallace as a pawn of the Communist Party. In his award-winning book, historian Thomas W. Devine sheds new light on this debate with an “exhaustively researched and elegantly argued” book that “places the Wallace campaign into a larger context of late 1940s post-Popular Front politics” (American Historical Review). In this TRU Magazine exclusive, Jeffrey Gall asks the author to tell us more.
National History Day | March 3, 2014
These kids are amazing!
On Saturday, a record-breaking 491 students competed at the Truman Library in the 2014 National History Day contest. Thanks, Kansas City Star, for coming to capture the moment. And good luck to our region’s students who are now preparing to compete in the state semi-final and then national competitions. Here are some of our favorite pictures from one of our favorite annual events.
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