Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum

Independence, MO

Harry Truman, U.S. president from 1945-1953, led the country from the end of World War II through the Korean War. The 15 million manuscripts in his presidential library, including 6.5 million White House files, document decisions like dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and entering the Korean War to fight communism and prevent the domino effect of other countries like Japan falling if South Korea lost. Papers at the library also testify to Truman’s significant role in the civil rights movement, as he desegregated the military, banned discrimination in the civil service and commissioned a federal report on civil rights. Truman’s library was the first established under the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act.

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