Records of the National Archives and Records Administration: Records of the Harry S. Truman Library: Library Visitor Registers (Record Group 64)

Registers of the Harry S. Truman Library

These records consist of twenty-four books signed by visitors to the Harry S. Truman Library. Along with their signatures, most of the visitors listed their places of residence or the organizations they represented. A few of the signatures are those of famous persons, such as Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter.

Size: 1 linear feet, 9 linear inches (Approximately 3,200 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: Documents created by the United States Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain.
Processed by: Shannon Lausch, David Clark (2011).
Updated by: Cassandra Schimpf (2017) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The Records of the Harry S. Truman Library are included among the Records of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Record Group 64. From the time of the Library's establishment in 1957 until 1985, the Library was part of NARA's predecessor agency, the National Archives and Records Service (NARS), which in turn was part of the General Services Administration. NARA was established as an independent agency in 1985.

The Library Visitor Registers consist of twenty-four books signed by visitors to the Harry S. Truman Library from April 1957 to December 1982. The books had spaces for visitors to write the date, their names, and their places of residence, or the names of the organizations they represented.

The twenty-four books contain about 40,000 signatures. It appears that the books were typically signed by visitors who entered the administrative entrance of the Truman Library, and not necessarily by visitors to the museum. From 1957 to 1972, former President Truman maintained an office near the administrative entrance, which was used by visitors who wanted to meet Mr. Truman or talk to members of his staff. Tourists, archival researchers, and guests of the Library Director may also have signed the books.

The books include the signatures of many notable people, including Harry S. Truman (April 12, 1957), John F. Kennedy (November 19, 1959), and Jimmy Carter (September 2, 1980).

Other records of the Harry S. Truman Library include the Director's Reading File and the the Director's Trip and Speech Files.