Upcoming events at Truman Library include Benton exhibit

The Truman Library in Independence is extending its current exhibit by a few days and has three more on tap for 2013. Also, some one-time events are on the schedule.

1. There are only a few days left to see “Tracing the Trumans: An American Story,” an exhibit at the library since March. It was scheduled to run through Dec. 31, but that’s been extended to Sunday, Jan. 6.
“We’ve had good attendance for this show,” said Clay Bauske, museum curator.
The exhibit tells the story of the families of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace Truman. It tells how the Wallaces, Gateses, Trumans and others came to Independence from Virginia, Kentucky, Vermont, Illinois and elsewhere, and it draws on materials that came to the library in recent years from the late Margaret Daniel Truman, Harry and Bess’s only child.
“We wanted to showcase the newer material we have,” Bauske said.

2. An exhibit opening in March, “Benton and Truman: Legends of the Missouri Border,” explores the relationship between the 33rd president and the famed painter and muralist. Although contemporaries – they were born five years apart and died three years apart – they really only got to know each other after Truman left office in 1953.
“Even though they were in different professions, they had a lot in common,” Bauske said.
Often the first thing a visitor to the Truman Library sees when stepping inside the building is the Benton mural “Independence and the Opening of the West” that dominates the lobby. He painted it between 1958 and 1960, and it was dedicated in April 1961.
The exhibit, which will include correspondence between the two men, will “cover their parrallel lives,” Bauske said. It runs March 8 to Oct. 14.

3. Some one-time events are on the schedule, too.
On Wednesday, “Home for the Holidays: Meet Harry Truman” is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Independence resident and retired Truman Library archivist Niel Johnson will portray the president, and museum visitors can ask him about the challenges and decisions of his presidency. Johnson, who has portrayed Truman for years and can expound on about every aspect of Truman’s time in office, is the author of “Power, Money and Women: Words to the Wise from Harry S. Truman.”
On Independence Appreciation Days – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 12 – the library honors Truman’s hometown with $1 admission for adults, free admission for those 15 and younger for Independence residents (be prepared to present a driver’s license or current utility statement). There are free guided tours.
That day is a second Saturday, so “Talkin’ Truman” is from 11 a.m. to noon. The topic is the history of the Truman and Wallace families in the city. Archivist Pauline Testerman shares letters, artifacts and photographs from the library’s collections.

4. Two exhibits come later in 2013.
 September brings a two-week treat, when the library will have on display “Acts of Congress” – meaning the first Congress of 1789.
“This is the book of their legislation that belonged to George Washington,” Bauske said.
The Mount Vernon Ladies Associated bought the book at auction this year.
“Emblazoned with Washington’s bookplate and featuring his handwritten notes penciled in the margins, the 106-page book contains Washington’s personal copy of the U.S. Constitution, a draft of the Bill of Rights, and other documents recording the early acts of the new Congress. Washington received the book in 1789, his first year in office as U.S. president, and brought it with him to Mount Vernon upon his retirement from public office in 1797,” says the website mountvernon.org.
Coming in November and running into February 2014 is “The American President,” a traveling show of Associated Press photographs – about a century’s worth – of U.S. presidents.

5. The museum is only closed three days a year: Christmas, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors 65 and older, $3 for children ages 6 to 15, and free for those 5 and younger. There is no admission to enter the museum store. Special exhibits are included in the price of admission.
In addition to the special exhibits, visitors to the library are drawn to the replica of the Oval Office, past the Benton mural on the main floor.
Also, the permanent exhibit “Truman: The Presidential Years” takes up most of the museum’s main floor, detailing the issues and decisions Truman faced a president from 1945 to 1953. Downstairs, the companion permanent exhibit, “Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times,” tells more of his personal side.
There online versions of these exhibits and past exhibits at www.trumanlibrary.org.