Visiting the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

by Janis on February 17, 2015

In honor of President’s Day, I’m writing about a visit last September to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.

I visited with our Alaska friend James, who was visiting Kansas City.

The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, located on U.S. Highway 24 in Independence, Missouri, was the first presidential library to be created under the provisions of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act.

Edward F. Neild, the lead architect of the project, died July 6, 1955, while working on the design at the Kansas City Club. Truman had initially wanted the building to resemble his grandfather Solomon Young’s house in Grandview, Missouri.

Built on land donated by the City of Independence, the Truman Library was dedicated July 6, 1957.The museum is both the library and the final resting place of 33rd President of the United States. When President Truman died in 1972, his funeral services were held in the Library auditorium and burial was in the courtyard.

As a very young child, I can vaguely recall visiting while President Truman’s body was lying in state for public viewing before the funeral.

In 1982 his wife Bess Truman was buried at his side.

Upon the death of their daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, in 2008, her ashes as well as those of her late husband, Clifton Daniel (who died in 2000), were also interred in the Library’s courtyard.

Upon entering the library, the first thing you see is the massive Thomas Hart Benton mural Independence and the Opening of The West. The mural was painted on site by Benton over a three-year span, and was completed in 1961.

Through the entrance in the mural, you see the replica of the Oval Office. This feature of the Truman Library has been copied by the Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush libraries.

This sign, “The Buck Stops Here” was given to President Truman in 1945 and sat on his Oval Office desk. The sign has come to symbolized Truman’s decisiveness and accountability.

During an early crisis during his presidency, Truman said, “I don’t pass the buck, nor do I alibi out of any decision I make.”

One of my favorite parts of Harry S. Truman Presidential Library is his office, which you can view through glass windows.

When Truman left the White House in 1953, he first established an office in Room 1107 of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City at 925 Grand Avenue, where he worked until the library opened in 1957.

After the library opened, President Truman transferred his office to the facility. He worked in this office five or six days a week. The office is said to look just as it did when Harry Truman died on December 26, 1972.

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, and on Sundays from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Admission is

$8 for adults,
$7 for seniors 65 and older
$3 for children ages 6 to 15
Free for children 5 years and under.

There is no charge to enter the museum store.

My favorite book that I’ve read about Harry S. Truman:
Truman

and the book I want to read after the museum visit:

The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War

Which Presidential Libraries have you visited?

Other posts on Kansas City and the surrounding area to check out:

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