Prologue: Pieces of History

When Harry S. Truman Library Director Mike Devine flew to Seoul, South Korea, the last thing he expected to see was an enormous outdoor exhibit featuring photos from the holdings of the National Archives. “In the last decade or so, we’ve had quite a number of researchers from Korea to the Truman Library to copy [...]

Since this week’s photo featured President Harry S. Truman, we turned to Tammy Kelly, an archivist at the Truman Library, to pick our winner for the photo contest. She has firsthand knowledge of this photo since she is the one who cataloged the doll into the Truman Library’s computerized system earlier this summer. Tammy picked John [...]

After much head scratching and sniffing—I mean, thinking—over which caption to choose (Khrushchev? Nipper? Kodak?) we decided to ask for help. We put in a request for assistance from Miriam Nisbet, who is the Director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). When she isn’t sorting out FOIA requests, she’s working with guide dogs, so [...]

It was 61 years ago today that General Douglas MacArthur was named commander of United Nations forces in Korea. The final command in an illustrious career, MacArthur’s tenure in Korea led to a controversial feud with President Harry Truman and ultimately his dismissal. The Korean War began on the morning of June 25, 1950, when [...]

For the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, the staff at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO, wanted to try something different. “Instead of doing a straightforward chronological presentation, we also wanted to focus on the personal experiences,” said curator Clay Bauske. The team worked for a year, collecting stories and [...]