Eisenhower Presidential Library

Welcome to the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, 200 SE 4th Street, Abilene, Kansas.

"I like Ike" slogan was one of the catchiest presidential slogans ever used, it was easy to remember. As Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, Eisenhower was a hero years before he was elected president. Having played a key role in bringing World War II to an end in Europe, his 1952 campaign slogan "I like Ike" seemed almost redundant. Who didn't like Ike?

The tiny town of Abilene became a spot on the map back in 1857, however, when the Kansas Pacific Railroad and the Chisholm Trail intersected, making Abilene the first “cowtown” in the American West. Herds of cattle, numbering in the millions, were driven up the Chisholm Trail from Texas and shipped to Eastern markets. Along with the cattle drives came the rowdy cowboys ready to blow the town apart after weeks on the trail; Abilene lawmen Tom Smith and Wild Bill Hickok became famous for their attempts to maintain law and order.

One of Abilene's main streets in the late 1800's.

One of Abilene's main streets in 2009.

Ike's parents, David (1863-1942) and Ida Eisenhower (1862-1946) on their wedding day, September 23, 1885. They met, as students, at Lane University in LeCompton, Kansas.

What kept the family intact and in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual growth was Ida. Ida had a gift for budgeting the family’s meager funds. She was a capable seamstress with both needle and sewing machine. She made most of the children’s clothes as well as bedspreads and tablecloths, made her own dresses and her husband’s shirts. Her spirit and strength sustained them. Always cheerful and wise, she tightly scheduled their chores, quietly demanded honesty and principled behavior in all things, and knew when to permit their boyhood adventures.

Donna in front of the original Eisenhower home in Abilene, Kansas.

Eisenhower front room. In the other room was Ida's prize possession, an ebony piano.

Ike is in the middle with the coveralls; he was very popular and considered one of the gang. Do you think he ever thought his life would take him to West Point and eventually the Supreme Allied Commander leading the invasion of Normandy that has become known as “The Longest Day”?

Eisenhower took the lessons learned as boy that respected honesty and hard work and celebrated the goodness, not the greatness, of their fellow man – lessons that led him to say, after becoming the liberator of the free world, “The proudest thing I can say is that I am from Abilene.”

While in Abilene, I met a gentleman that told me he was Mrs. Eisenhower's paper boy and she was always friendly and gracious to him. He said Ike was well liked and a regular guy, he came back to Abilene often to see his mother, he would also walk to the places of employment of his buddies to let them know he was in town.

The Class of 1915, the class the "stars" fell on.

In Eisenhower’s class of 1915, of the 164 graduates, 59 earned at least one star (attained the rank of general), the most of any class in the history of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, two reached the second highest rank, five-star General of the Army . In addition, there were two four-star "full" generals, seven three-star lieutenant generals, 24 two-star major generals and 24 one-star brigadier generals..

Generals of the Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar N. Bradley.

Generals, James Van Fleet, Joseph T. McNarney

Lieutenant Generals, Henry Aurand, Hubert R. Harmon, Stafford LeRoy Irwin, Thomas B. Larkin, John W. Leonard, George E. Stratemeyer and Joseph M Swing.

Note: Only two men in the history of the United States were accorded the highest military rank of General of the Armies, George Washington and John Pershing.

The six Eisenhower brothers (left to right): Milton (1899-1985) University President, Earl (1898-1968) newspaper manager, Roy (1892-1942) pharmacist, Dwight (1890-1969) 34th President of the United States, Edgar (1889-1971) lawyer, Arthur (1886-1958) bank vice-president.

This was known as Lena's Famous Farmhouse on the Hill. Lena has fed tourist from coast to coast, foreign diplomats, secret service men, White House officials and of course Abilene's favorite son, President Eisenhower.

Lena's fried chicken steak was very good.

This is the room where Ike and his family, friends and buddies would gather. Also where Lena paddled him on his 75th birthday.

Eisenhower married Mamie Geneva Doud (1896–1979) of Denver, Colorado on July 1, 1916.

Bob & Dolores Hope wrote: Mamie Eisenhower was an inspiration to us as a friend and First Lady and we know she will continue to inspire future generations.

Ike and Mamie lived in Gettysburg, PA and Palm Desert, California after his presidency.

Autographed baseball to Ike from Honus Wagner.

“When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish.

(quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower)

Ike was a avid baseball player and fan. He is throwing out the first pitch in the 1956 World Series. Looking on are Casey Stengel, Walter O'Malley and Walt Alston.

In the 5th game of the series, Don Larsen pitched the perfect game, a shut-out. New York Yankees 2, Brooklyn Dodgers 0

George Marshall, chair of the chiefs of staff in Washington, knew Ike’s capabilities, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Marshall called Ike to Washington to piece together the rudiments of US strategy and recommend how to make it work in this new war. Ike came to know more about US industrial capacity than anyone in the country.

Supreme commander of Allied Expeditionary Force in Western Europe (1943); General of the Army (1944); Army Chief of Staff (1945); Sup Allied Powers in Europe (1951)

As recognition of his senior position in the Allied command, on December 20, 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army equivalent to the rank of Field Marshal in most European armies. In this and the previous high commands he held, Eisenhower showed his great talents for leadership and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he won the respect of front-line commanders. He dealt skillfully with difficult subordinates such as Omar Bradley and Patton, and allies such as Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General Charles de Gaulle.

Ike was very popular coming back from Europe as a national hero for his work as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, it was the service he seems destined to have rendered, playing a critical role in ridding the world of Hitler’s evil. That, in turn became the event which won Eisenhower the fame that would send him to the presidency.

Eisenhower was a much more successful President than often credited with being. After ending Truman’s war in Korea, with a combination of subtle diplomacy and implied military threats, Eisenhower, which the record now shows was far more hands-on than was thought while he was President, kept the US at peace during the height of the Cold War. This is more than his immediate successors could claim.

He felt a strong sense of duty to his country and to the Constitution. He pursued that duty with uncommon diligence.

Ike's personal desk.

On February 2, 2006, The Eisenhower Presidential Library has released 40,000 pages of formerly security classified material. This release is in conjunction with the Library’s declassification program that has resulted in the opening of over 400,000 pages of formerly security classified material since 1977.

This is the Meditation Chapel on the Eisenhower Presidential Library grounds and the final resting place for Ike, Mamie and Doud Eisenhower.

Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969. The following day his body was moved to the Washington National Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel where he lay in repose for twenty-eight hours. On March 30, his body was brought by caisson to the United States Capitol where he lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. On March 31, Eisenhower's body was returned to the National Cathedral where he was given an Episcopal Church funeral service. That evening, Eisenhower's body was placed onto a train en route to Abilene, Kansas. His body arrived on April 2, and was interred later that day in a small chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. Eisenhower is buried alongside his son Doud who died at age 3 in 1921, and his wife, Mamie, who died in 1979

“”Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

(A quote from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night:)