The National Archives presents Tokens and Treasures: Gifts to Twelve Presidents

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Introduction
About This Exhibit
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
William J. Clinton
Gifts of State

Presidential Library System
Exhibit Hall

 

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman Library

Harry S. Truman Signature

Harry S. Truman
Democrat
33d President, 1945-53

 

War club
Gift of Olin C. Walker, Jr.
Stone, fur, feathers, wood, 41 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches

Click to see high-resolution version (JPEG)

War Club

During his administration, President Truman often seemed to be at war–-especially with Republicans or Congress–fighting hard for his policies and programs. Mr. Walker sent this Native American war club to the President to help fight those battles.

I know you are having trying times so I am giving you . . . a tommie axe to fight you[r] Battles through[ou]t life . . . wishing you the best of luck. . . .

–Letter from Olin C. Walker, Jr.,
June 15, 1948

 

Fair Deal Donkey, by Edwin F. Elliott, 1949
Gift of Charles F. Brannon, Secretary of Agriculture
Papier-mâché, 16 x 22 x 6 inches

Fair Deal Donkey

Truman considered his domestic program, the Fair Deal, the foundation of his administration. An extension of FDR's New Deal, it called for increases in funding for education and in the minimum wage, a tax cut, national health insurance, a new economic support system for farmers, and an end to racial discrimination. This gift praises Truman's Fair Deal for the American farm.

 

 

 

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