KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
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To celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence has an incredible exhibit — “Opening the Vault: The Story of US” — that should appeal to any and every history buff.
Featuring 21 rarely displayed artifacts from the National Archives, the Truman Library exhibit offers a unique brush with America’s past through documents like the Louisiana Purchase, the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, various constitutional amendments, Germany’s surrender in World War II and many others.
The exhibit runs through May 24 before moving to the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas, where it will be displayed from June 2 to July 5.
“It's just cool to see documents we talked about in class, but it's the real thing,” Platte County High School junior Kimber Brown said.
Brown’s social studies class recently studied the Korean War, working through the treaty process that ended the conflict and split the peninsula into two countries.
The class got to see the Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State, which ended the war on July 27, 1953, and is part of “The Story of US” exhibit.
“It makes them more interesting,” Brown said. “There's the Louisiana Purchase over there and a bunch of other stuff, like the 13th Amendment.”
Some documents, like the Dred Scott decision and Plessy v. Ferguson judgment, represent dark moments in the country’s history, but they're balanced out by historical corrections, like the Brown v. Board of Education Opinion.
“It’s crazy that there’s that many [documents] here, but it’s pretty cool,” Platte County senior Anna Simon said.
It brought class lessons to life.
“I’ve seen the movies about, like, the Declaration of Independence, and some of it brings back how old some of these documents really are and who wrote them or signed them,” Platte County junior Blake Greer said.
The Truman Library built “The Story of US” exhibit around the documents, immersing visitors in the ups and downs of our nation’s history.
“You might see these documents online or in a school textbook, but seeing the original documents up close just brings them alive,” Truman Library Director Mark Adams said. "You can imagine the conversations that have taken place between the different people as they're debating the Bill of Rights, as they're writing this majority opinion for the Brown v. Board of Education. To see Truman's Executive Order 9981, which is so significant for people like Colin Powell — seeing those original, authentic documents just makes it real and gets you that much closer to the people that made those important decisions.”
Certainly, it brought history home for the museumgoers Wednesday.
“It matters just to give a sense of how things used to be and everything that we went through to get to where we are now,” Simon said.
Debra Burns also toured the exhibit Wednesday.
“Just to see real artifacts, real documents, gives me goose bumps,” she said.
Adams said museum attendance has roughly doubled since the exhibit opened. The Truman Library is open seven days a week — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
“I really encourage people to come out now before they leave,” Adams said. “You don't want to miss this opportunity.”
Burns agreed: “It's here. We didn't have to go to DC to see this, or New York. It came here. “
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