CEAC-2021-07-July

American Street Guide
Remodeled Truman Library and Museum
Preparing to Reopen By Laura Spencer | KCUR-FM
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — When director Kurt Graham
arrived at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
in July 2015, he immediately dove into a new project.
“And as we got into it with the staff and the board and the
other stakeholders in the community and people in the museum
industry,” Graham says, “we realized that we weren’t
just remodeling or refreshing the galleries. We were re-imagining
the Truman Library from top to bottom.”
The Truman Library & Museum, closed since July 2019, is
poised to reopen this year, with a 3,000-square-foot addition
and new ways to make the story of Truman and his presidency
relevant to what’s happening today, radio station KCUR-
FM reports.
Over the last few decades, the museum experience has
changed a lot, in part due to technological advances and
visitor feedback.
“When I was growing up, going to a museum was almost a
liturgical experience,” says Patrick Gallagher, president of the
museum planning and design firm, Gallagher & Associates.
“Don’t talk, don’t touch, and stay in single file lines.”
These days, he says, visitors are encouraged to read, watch,
listen, or interact.
Gallagher & Associates has designed projects like the National
Museum of African American Music in Nashville, the
National World War II Museum in New Orleans, and the
International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
“This museum is set up in a chronological flow,” Gallagher
says, “so there’s a very directional flow to how visitors go
through.”
Truman was thrust into the presidency in April 1945 with the
death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“I think people will see that, yes, he was just an ordinary
man, but he got launched on an extraordinary journey and
had to make decisions that few people in human history
have ever had to confront,” says director Kurt Graham. “And
I think that is what people will appreciate about him, is that
notion of character, that notion of integrity.”
As with other presidents, Gallagher says, decisions defined
Truman’s presidency — especially ones he was confronted
with in the first four months.
“Then you turn the corner and you’re at this first four
months,” Gallagher describes, as he walks into a hallway.
“So the idea of creating compression for the visitor. So all of
these incredible moments are weighing on the shoulders of
Truman.”
Moments like the end of the war with Germany, the decision
MAKE THE CONNECTION.
It also has been adding presidential libraries to its portfolio.
“FDR, Reagan, Johnson, Ford, and now Truman,” Gallagher
says. “I guess I’ve become a little bit of a presidential library
junkie.”
Presidential libraries used to focus on the years of an administration,
he says. But now they take a broader view.
“Going deeper into who’s the person — what molded that
person, what’s their contemporary relevance? How are they
remaining relevant today?” Gallagher says, “so that we can
find a reason for visitors to say ‘yes, there is a legacy here
that’s really important to my life.’”
Visitors will be greeted by a new sense of arrival and flow.
The entrance is now on the east side of the building through
a 3,000-square-foot addition. And Truman’s life story is all on
one level.
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| Chief Engineer