I took a nerd vacation of one week while Jean attended her silent retreat in California to visit the Presidential museums of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower,…
The Truman museum in Independence, MO (still a beautiful small town) was my favorite. It is frank about the issues and engaging but not gimmicky. This picture…
The Democratic Party fought over the vice-president nomination in 1944 and Truman was the only person to whom nobody objected. They called him, "The other…
After Roosevelt's death in 1945, Truman embarked on a series of policy decisions that drove U.S. foreign relations for twenty years and beyond. We now forget…
Thanks to post-war inflation and Republican attacks based on patriotism and anti-Communism, Truman entered the 1948 campaign well behind New York Governor…
Truman complained about a sagging ceiling on the first floor of the White House. The engineer's report said it stayed in place only "by force of habit." Some of…
Researching Midwest Presidents introduced me to "regionalist" artists Grant Wood (Iowa resident who painted Hoover's birthplace), John Stuart Curry (Kansas and…
Here is an example of the problem. Nobody thinks of it when they first see this but it could be said that it is about the change of seasons. Persephone (the…
Next up was the Eisenhower Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, not far from Kansas City. Six boys were raised in this small house with very little resources.…
The family got to Kansas in the 1870's migrations (immigrants and others poured into the state in that decade). Dwight's grandfather was a successful leader of…
We ascribe Ike's support of the Interstate highway system to the autobahns he saw in Germany. At least as influential was the Army's 1919 convoy across the…
In a traditional sense, Eisenhower married up with Mamie, who loved the prestige that came with his rank. Their army quarters inevitably became a social hub,…
The Eisenhower Museum is an old-fashioned hagiographic exercise. Still, it might be asking a lot to assess the role of Kay Summersby in Eisenhower's life and…
On the one hand, the post-D-Day command was an amazingly cooperative venture of Brits, Americans and others. The actuality, of course, was more difficult. The…
The Eisenhower Museum did not offer much on post-war policy (except Korea) and I moved on to the next leg of my journey from Kansas City's beautifully restored…
Now this is how travel should be! I see Union Station's interior as an uplifting civic celebration, like the Los Angeles Union Station and Thirtieth Street…
The train took me through Saint Louis to Springfield, Illinois. It is the state capitol, thanks in part, to Abraham Lincoln, who was a leader of the forces to…
His house is a 10-minute walk away (as are most important places in Springfield). Lincoln, whose frontier family moved to Illinois from Kentucky and Indiana,…
This map targets specifically the 1860 election, won by Lincoln, but gives clues of the policy tensions he faced throughout the war. To win the war, Lincoln had…
After the election, in 1861, Lincoln left for Washington from this station, when it had one story. He delivered what now is called his Farewell Address:…
