President’s Day is coming: Remember our country’s history through presidential museums.
Ten down and three to go! I love a good countdown. It’s the sign of achievement. With President’s Day upon us, I recommend visiting any one of the National Archives’ 13 presidential museums from Hoover to the second Bush scattered across our country. Regardless of your political affiliation, these galleries present U.S. history from the perspectives of past heads of state. They are amazing!
President Reagan, an Illinois native, built his house of history in Simi Valley, California. Take a walk-through Air Force One, the flying White House, and touch an authentic section of the Berlin Wall upon which President Reagan exclaimed, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Incredibly moving!
President Truman’s museum, located in Independence, Missouri, brought me to tears with two key artifacts: the safety plug from “Fat Man,” the Nagasaki bomb that destroyed too many lives and a cellophane origami crane folded by radiation victim Sadako Sasaki during her recovery from the Hiroshima bomb. Utterly eerie!
President Nixon’s re-election was a landslide! The red electoral map, with only Massachusetts colored blue, showed America’s confidence in their leader. A sharp turn down the next hallway in Nixon’s museum in Yorba Linda, California, detailed the fall of an overburdened leader plagued by conspiracy theories in the Watergate display. Completely mind blowing!
These museums make history come alive. They give visitors an insider’s view from our heads of state. Watch for the 2026 opening of President Obama’s library on Chicago’s south side. Respect our past. Connect with our history.
I’m Anissa Kuhar and that’s my perspective.
