Trullinger, Dawn Papers

Collector, USS Williamsburg memorabilia

The papers of Dawn Trullinger contain materials relating to the USS Williamsburg, President Harry S. Truman’s yacht. The collection is composed of an information book, correspondence, press clippings, printed materials, and other records relating to the USS Williamsburg and the boat’s subsequent use as a scientific and recreational vessel in the 1960s and 1970s.

Size: Less than one linear foot (abuot 500 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. Government all of its copyright interest in these materials and in any other materials received by the U.S. Government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by employees of the U.S. Government in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in the collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Brian Jolet (2026).

Dawn Trullinger donated this collection to the Truman Library in 2024. Trullinger obtained these materials from her mother, Margaret Tiedeman (1923-2006). Tiedeman received the records in connection with her employment at the Marlboro Machine Company in Pennsville, New Jersey. The company’s owner, George F. Simpkins (1914-2004), gave the materials to Tiedeman while she worked for the company. Simpkins, an ardent admirer of President Truman, purchased the former USS Williamsburg in 1968 after it was decommissioned as a science vessel. He docked the boat, which he renamed Williamsburg, at the Marlboro Marina on the Salem River and transformed it into a floating restaurant, lounge, and museum before selling it in 1975.

The Dawn Trullinger Papers contain one series of records relating to the USS Williamsburg, the presidential yacht used by President Harry S. Truman. The series includes correspondence, a brief history of the vessel, menus, a brochure, a marketing plan report, a copy of the magazine Summer, press clippings, and a certificate of ownership. The records primarily document the yacht’s use as a recreational vessel in the 1970s. The series also contains a printed information book for the USS Williamsburg created by the Navy Department. The information book is composed of detailed descriptions and drawings of the vessel. Photographs from these papers were transferred to the Library’s Audiovisual Collection.

Related papers at the Truman Library include the Gerald L. O’Neal Papers, the Leo W. Roberts Papers, the William W. Janssen Papers, the Mariano Floresca Papers, and the William M. Rigdon Papers.