Life of Lydia

Dear readers, last Friday, my father drove me to the Truman Library in Independance Missouri to research for this year’s National History Day project.

I was first introduced to Presidential Libaries when my dad flew me to the Eisenhower museum last spring. While we were there, we went into the lobby of the Eisenhower library. I learned that I was standing in the home of an extensive collection of documents related to Eisenhower’s life and presidency. I also learned that anyone could book an appointment to view these documents. My heart was captured, and I knew that a research visit to a presidential library was in my future.

Eisenhower’s library in Abilene Kansas is a five hour drive from our house. Truman’s library on the other hand is only a three hour drive. As much as I like Ike, I chose to research Harry Truman for the following reasons:

1 – He’s from Missouri

2 – His library is closer (actually the main reason)

3 – I had already thought about doing the Atomic Bomb

4 – I felt like I needed to expand my WWII interests to include the Pacific Theater, and Ike was strictly a Europe guy

My History Day project revolves around Harry’s decision to drop the Atomic Bomb. I will discuss the research and development of this project in a later post (because it’s not finished yet), but for now we will talk about my visit to the library.

I had an appointment scheduled for October 6th, but last Thursday it got rescheduled to last Friday due to a possible government shutdown. (Just for the record, there was a lot of drama (primarily coming from me) caused over the process of rescheduling)

We left bright and early Friday morning. I was so happy and excited that I forgot to eat a proper breakfast before we left.

To remedy this problem, we stopped at a McDonald’s in Clinton (pictured above), where we each got an Egg McMuffin.

Upon arriving at the Library, we presented legal IDs and received official “Researcher” badges.

They are very strict about what you can bring into the research room (pictured above). Forbidden items include, but are not limited to: food and drink, pens, smoking and vaping equipment, bags, coats, and books. (My father was prohibited from bringing in his Sunday School leader guide) Permited items include and ARE limited to: your body, your clothes (but not outerwear), computers, phones (on silent), pencils, single sheets of paper (barely), and flatbed scanners. (My father was instructed to leave his light jacket in the provided locker in the lobby, where we also left my backpack and my father’s Sunday School leader’s guide.)

To request boxes to be pulled, you had to fill out forms. I was well prepared for this task, as I had written down the collection names and box numbers for everything I wanted on the paper that I was barely allowed to bring in.

Furthermore, my paper had to be stamped, to signify it was a non-record. They are very serious about preventing record theft.

After you turned in your forms they brought out the boxes you had requested on a cart. You are only allowed to have one box at a time on your table, and you can only take one folder at a time out of the box, and you must keep everything in order within the folder. You have to place a laminated divider sheet (which has a picture of Truman and Stalin on it) in the spot where you pulled the folder out, so you know where to put it back. We saw another researcher get reprimanded for failing to use the divider sheet. They are very serious about keeping their records organized.

I spent a lot of my time at the library going through the correspondence between Truman and his friend from WWI, Eddie McKim. McKim’s son was a Marine and was killed in the Pacific. Eddie McKim and his son will be making an appearance in my performance. The letters are not digitized, so I self digitized most of them. (Example above)

Another item I viewed was Harry’s appointment book. The above photo shows June 18 1945, the day on which an important meeting about the Atomic Bomb occured. Apparently Harry also presented “The distinguished service medal” to General Esienhower on that day. Harry was a busy guy.

I tried to keep detailed notes, to make life easier on myself when I write my bigliography.

All too soon, it was time to bid farewell to the Truman Library. I am looking forward to a return visit.

Before we left my father mentioned that on the way home we could stop as much as we wanted, because there was no time crunch. We really took this to heart, stopping at Casey’s because my dad wanted an ice cream bar and thirty minutes later stopping at Burger King and Wendy’s. My dad wanted to stop at a shop called Osceola Cheese, but I talked him out of it.