Presidential Memorabilia Despite the fact that Congress investigated every executive office of his administration for corruption, Ulysses S. Grant thought he might run for President again. The Republican Party did not want Grant to run again, which lead to a variety of potential candidates. In the end, Rutherford B. Hayes, Governor of Ohio, won the nomination. This election ended with controversy over the electoral votes of three southern states with state governments controlled by federal (and Republican) authorities. Presidential Memorabilia from the Truman Library
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Presidential Memorabilia

Despite the fact that Congress investigated every executive office of his administration for corruption, Ulysses S. Grant thought he might run for President again. The Republican Party did not want Grant to run again, which lead to a variety of potential candidates.

In the end, Rutherford B. Hayes, Governor of Ohio, won the nomination. This election ended with controversy over the electoral votes of three southern states with state governments controlled by federal (and Republican) authorities.

Presidential Memorabilia from the Truman Library

MoonShot Monday: A Very Windy Test James E. Webb was the 2nd administrator for NASA, from 1961 - 1968.  The Truman Presidential Library holds the manuscript materials for Webb, including hundreds of NASA-related pictures.  For our space fix today, here’s a glimpse into the vigorous testing NASA puts its equipment through. Pictured above is a one-third scaled model of the Saturn I Block II launch vehicle, a rocket designed to launch large amounts of mass into low Earth orbit. Resting inside NASA Langley Research Center’s wind-tunnel, the launch vehicle is mounted on a turntable with the umbilical tower so that it can be rotated to receive the force of the wind stream from any direction.  Wind-tunnel test results guide the design of launch pedestals assuring ample strength for any surface wind conditions.
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MoonShot Monday: A Very Windy Test

James E. Webb was the 2nd administrator for NASA, from 1961 - 1968.  The Truman Presidential Library holds the manuscript materials for Webb, including hundreds of NASA-related pictures. 

For our space fix today, here’s a glimpse into the vigorous testing NASA puts its equipment through. Pictured above is a one-third scaled model of the Saturn I Block II launch vehicle, a rocket designed to launch large amounts of mass into low Earth orbit.

Resting inside NASA Langley Research Center’s wind-tunnel, the launch vehicle is mounted on a turntable with the umbilical tower so that it can be rotated to receive the force of the wind stream from any direction.  Wind-tunnel test results guide the design of launch pedestals assuring ample strength for any surface wind conditions.

Source: trumanlibrary.org

Like most boys from Missouri, Harry Truman developed simple tastes in food as he was growing up—especially things like his mother’s fried chicken and that great American budget-friendly staple, meatloaf.

According to the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, the 33rd President also liked corn bread with Missouri sorghum, all kinds of fowl, and Ozark pudding, which included chopped apples and nuts. (The Boss, that’s Mrs. Truman, had a special recipe for this.) Truman preferred chocolate cake to white cake, but the exception was angel food cake (and why not!).

Several accounts from that period agree that Truman really hated onions and could not be fooled into eating them. He could detect the smallest amount of onions in a dish and would just push that dish aside.

Once in the White House, however, meals became a more formal and ritualized experience for Truman.

In November 1949, Mrs. Truman was back in Independence, leaving the President alone in the “Great White Jail,” as he called the White House.  And alone for meals.

When mealtime came, a White House butler announced dinner, and Truman would head to the dining room and be helped into his chair by another butler. In his diary for November 1, Truman provides an account of how butlers waited on him hand and foot while he ate alone by candelight.

Early in the 1960s, with Mrs. Truman at his side laughing, the former President read the diary entry  for the cameras,  barely containing his amusement about the fancy dining and fancy service that comes with the job of being President.

Read more from this post and see images of the full diary entry on The National Archives’ Prologue: Pieces of History. 

You can try out some of the Truman family’s recipes through the soon-to-be-published, Eating with Uncle Sam: Recipes and Historical Bites from the National Archives, a companion cookbook to the new exhibit at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.  “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?”

Bess Truman and the indestructable champagne bottle

For those of you who haven’t made it out to the Truman Library to see the film clip of this airplane christening, here’s a photo and story from our archives.  Bess was supposed to swing the champagne bottle at the airplane, and it was supposed to shatter, showering the plane with champagne. However, the bottle hadn’t been scored to allow it to break easily, and Bess whacked at the plane eleven times; the bottle didn’t break. She finally got the bottle to break on the other plane, due to a Navy crewman hitting the bottle from underneath with a hammer. At the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri we have this hat in our museum collection and amazingly, it doesn’t smell like champagne.

This image of First Lady Bess Truman was taken on May 30th, 1945.  Her daughter, Margaret Truman is beside her.

For more photos of Bess and Margaret, check out the Truman Library Photo Database and Facebook page.

Cheers!