The Truman Library has received many questions regarding the issue of the use of the period in Mr. Truman’s full name, Harry S. Truman. Mr. Truman himself apparently started the controversy in 1962, when, possibly in jest, he told reporters that the period should be left out. In explanation, he said that “S” did not stand for any name, but was a compromise between the names of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young.
Several widely recognized style manuals provide guidance in favor of using the period. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, all initials given with a name should “for convenience and consistency” be followed by a period, even if they are not abbreviations of names. The U. S. Government Printing Office style manual states that the period should be used after the “S” in Harry S. Truman’s name.
Within the holdings of the Truman Library, we have hundreds of examples of both Mr. Truman’s signature and his initials throughout his life. He himself is not consistent regarding the use of the period with his middle name.
This is an example of Mr. Truman’s signature from 1915 where the period is quite clear.
This example from 1948 shows Mr. Truman’s signature where it’s not clear that there is a period, or he wrote his signature in one stroke of the pen, without lifting it off the page.
This is an example of his initials from 1952, where the period is very clear.
This example of his initials from 1937 does not contain a period after the S.
In this example from 1930, he includes the period after his name at the top of the document, but does not include it at the bottom of the document.
Finally, there is a period with his middle name on his headstone where he is buried in the courtyard of the Library, and if he did not want it there, he had ample opportunity to make his opinion known before he died. Mr. Truman's mother used a period after his middle name when she would write to him, as you can see on page three of this letter, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/467258909, and we trust Mama Truman's judgment here.