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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (September 27, 2024)—The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum will open a new temporary exhibition titled Artistic Views of the Truman Home Sept. 30. The prominent Victorian home at 219 North Delaware Street in Independence, Missouri, has been a source of inspiration for artists who have created sketches, paintings, photographs, scale models and other depictions of the home.
Artistic Views of the Truman Home features more than a dozen different artistic renditions of the home and more than 50 photographs. President Truman and his wife Bess lived together in the home for 53 years, from their marriage in 1919 until the President’s death in 1972.
“While the home served as the Trumans’ ‘Summer White House,’ the Trumans didn’t acquire ownership until after Bess’s mother died in 1952, during the last months of the Truman administration,” explains Mark Adams, museum curator at the Truman Library. “Bess Truman’s maternal grandfather, George Porterfield Gates, built the home in 1867, and it’s long been considered one of Independence’s most prominent addresses.”
The exhibition is inspired by Independence artist Muriel Winn Luedeman. In 2023, Luedeman completed her painting, “Truman’s White House,” and loaned it to the Museum, sparking the staff’s idea to develop this exhibition of varied artistic perspectives on the home, including a scaled model of the presidential dwelling.
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