HARRY TRUMAN SIGNS A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIS FAMILY

HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884-1972). Truman was the Thirty-Third President.

PS. 9” x 7”. No date. No place.  A black-and-white photograph signed “Harry S Truman” on the top margin.  The photograph shows him with his beaming daughter to his right and his unsmiling wife Bess to his left.  The photograph has a press stamp on the verso and is in very fine condition.

PRESIDENT TRUMAN APPOINTS AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR

HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884-1972). Truman was the Thirty-Third President.

DS. 1pg. 16” x 12 ½”. September 27, 1950. Washington.  A commission signed “Harry S Truman” as President and co-signed by “Maurice J. Tobin” as Secretary of Labor.  The President appointed Robert J. Creasey as an Assistant Secretary of Labor.  The calligrapher erred on Creasey’s state, so he or she scratched it out and replaced it with “Texas”.  The document is glued to a larger board and is evenly toned from a previous framing; the gold seal is intact and the large autograph is dark.

PRESIDENT TRUMAN APPOINTS THE FUTURE PGA DIRECTOR, ROBERT CREASEY, AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR

HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884-1972).  Truman was the Thirty-Third President. 

DS. 1pg. 16 ½” x 12 ½”. December 21, 1950. Washington.  A document signed “Harry S Truman” as President and co-signed “Maurice J. Tobin” as Secretary of Labor.  Truman appointed Robert T. Creasey the Assistant Secretary of Labor.  Creasey later became the executive director of the Professional Golfers Association.  The Truman signature is bit light and there is some skipping, although the Tobin is dark and there is a bright gold seal.  The entire document is neatly glued down to a board and there is light toning around the margins, perhaps from a previous framing.  The condition is good to very good.

PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN AWARDS AND SIGNS LEGION OF MERIT TO A SOVIET SOLDIER

HARRY TRUMAN (1884-1974). Truman served as the 33^rd President.

TDS. 1 pg. 8” x 10” N.d. White House. A typed document signed “Harry S Truman” as President: “CITATION FOR LEGION OF MERIT Degree of Legionnaire Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Stapanovitch Sergeeff, 20th Budapest Guard Infantry Corps, Red Army, displayed exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services contributing materially to the success of combined operations in Europe”. The Legion of Merit is a military award of the United States Armed Forces for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.” The award can be issued to members of the eight uniformed branches of the United States Armed Forces, but also to military and political figures of foreign governments. It is seventh in order of precedence of all U.S. military awards. Notable recipients of the Legion of Merit include Joe Louis, Colin Powell, King George VI, Chiang Kai-shek, Charles De Gaulle, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and Narendra Modi. Given how quickly U.S.-Soviet relations deteriorated after World War II, it is likely this specific citation was awarded in the early years of the presidency of Harry Truman. The document is in fine condition.

DURING THE POST-WORLD WAR II ECONOMIC FUNK, PRESIDENT TRUMAN ASKS BANKER EDWARD HOPKINSON TO JOIN AN ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884-1972). Truman was the Thirty-Third President, serving in that role during the end of World War Two and in the post-war period.

TLS. 1pg. June 17, 1946. The White House, Washington. A typed letter signed “Harry S Truman” as President on official “The White House” letterhead. In the wake of World War Two, Truman wrote to investment banker Edward Hopkinson Jr. of Drexel and Company, asking him to serve on a Presidential economic committee. “Dear Mr. Hopkinson: It is of vital importance to our country and to the stabilization of the international economy, that we proceed as rapidly as possible with another of the major objectives of our reconversion program: namely, to tie in our national productive capacity with the world’s reconstruction requirements. The conduct and financing of our foreign trade should be handled by private industry with the cooperation and such assistance as is necessary from the proper Government agencies. I am asking you to serve on a committee of 12 leading industrialists and bankers to draft a report on the problem, and recommendations for handling it, to be presented to the National Advisory Council which has the duty of preparing a definite plan of procedure. I do not hesitate to ask for your time and effort because it is a service which the country and the world gravely need at this time. A list of the members of this Advisory Committee is attached and I hop you will wire me your acceptance. Sincerely yours, Harry S Truman”. A typed list of committee members is also included, as is the telegram by which Hopkinson accepted Truman’s invitation.  All three pieces are in very good condition with some toning.

AN ARCHIVE OF SIX DOCUMENTS FROM HARRY TRUMAN’S EARLY POLITICAL CARER IN JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI

HARRY TRUMAN (1884-1972). Truman was the Thirty-Third President.

1926. 6 pieces. An archive of documents relating to one of Harry Truman’s earliest political campaigns. One item in the archive is an expense report, dated August 11, 1926 and twice signed “Harry S Truman”. The other items include a brief letter to Truman, from Ernest Jackson. “Mr. Harry Truman Dear Friend :- Enclosed find the list of names for judges & clerks for the different precincts of Van Buren Twp…Hoping these good Democrats will all be appointed. I am so ever Your Friend Ernest Jackson”. There are also four typed pages giving the above-mentioned list of judges and clerks. All items are in very good condition. There are scattered rust stains from paperclips, and one typed list has small tears that do not affect any text. In 1926, Truman would be elected Presiding Judge of Jackson County, in Missouri’s Eastern District. This was his second-ever political position. Therefore, this unusual memorabilia is from the very start of a future President’s political career.