"History Is Made By People...An Exhibit To Honor Them All"

 

Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home Builds An Exhibit To Honors The People Who Made History

Photo courtesy of Eisenhower Presidential Museum

by

 Cecilia Harris

One man sweeps up sawdust as three fellow workers finish screwing together the wooden framework for a case that will display the identification card and lapel pin belonging to German youngsters in their early teens who were members of Adolph Hitler’s Youth organization defending Berlin at the end of World War II. Another display case being built at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene will tell the story of a brave United States sergeant who single-handedly held a strategic post, keeping it from falling into the hands of an advancing German army during the Battle of the Bulge.

The museum’s new exhibit now under construction will open on Jan. 24, the 70^th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Bulge, which is one of three topics featured in the display. On that Saturday, the Kansas Chapter of Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge will hold its annual gathering at the Eisenhower Museum, making the exhibit’s opening an extra-special – and personal – event.

“History is made up of people,” says William Snyder, supervisory museum curator at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home. ““We’re telling the personal side of things in our exhibits, both from our side and the other side. When we can tell the history on a personal level is when it will grab people’s attention and they will think about it and get insight into human nature.”

Just like the machinists who built the rifles and tanks men used on the front lines, Snyder and fellow staff members, Matthew Thompson, registrar, Troy Elkins, museum technician, and Jeff Nelson, intern museum technician, work behind the scenes creating the majority of the exhibits at the Eisenhower complex.  An exhibit takes years of strategic planning, from its first stage as a simple idea to research and development, the acquisition of artifacts, and the final construction of the display visitors see in the gallery.

Photo courtesy of Eisenhower Presidential Museum

The new exhibit, which also focuses on the Berlin Strategic Offensive (Battle of Berlin) and the two major island invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima in the Pacific, supplements the temporary exhibits World War II Remembered: Leaders, Battle & Heroes in the museum and Be Ye Men of Valour: Allies of World War II in the library that will continue to be displayed through December of 2016.

“We refer to those as our anchor exhibits, trying to tell the broader, overall story of World War II,” Snyder says. “What we’ve been using this gallery for is supplements that target specific 70^th anniversaries of the war - the major battles and major events within the war.“

 Exhibits typically are planned five years in advance, ensuring important upcoming anniversaries are celebrated. Also discussed during the planning stages are other topics that “have a story to be told” and are relevant to Eisenhower which, of course, is the museum’s mission, Snyder says. The museum was dedicated in 1954 as a memorial to all members of the Armed Services per Eisenhower’s request.

The most important aspect of the job, Snyder adds, is to honor the veterans and tell their stories, whether they were soldiers on the front lines or the people working back home in the industrial effort of fighting the global conflict.

Creating exhibits from beginning to end is quite an undertaking for the smallest staff in the Presidential Library system. The expertise of each member is relied upon to achieve a common goal. Behind doors marked “Staff Only,” the four historians discuss a concept that develops into the displays seen today in the museum. Research of the topic and the development of a script is the first step.

“Basically, each one of them (Thompson, Elkins and Nelson) has taken a section of this exhibit and done the research and writing for it, and then we go through an editing process,” Snyder says. “They have done a phenomenal amount of work. Fortunately, they are all military historians, which is fantastic; they have found some great stories and wonderful photographs that will be included in the exhibit.”

Once a script is developed, the search begins for eye-catching artifacts to tell the story of, in this case, the major battles that are the focus of the exhibit.

“We are, of course, using our own collections,” Snyder says. “We do have an extensive World War II collection, we’re not just about the presidency. And we are literally borrowing artifacts from all over the world, from other museums and private collectors. It’s really fantastic that we get to bring these things here for people to see and help tell the story of World War II.”

Each acquisition requires paperwork regarding such important issues as the Eisenhower Museum’s security and environment, specific shipping requirements, and insurance.

“All those things are done behind the scenes six months to a year in advance,” Snyder says, adding it is well worth the effort. “It’s important to use our own collections, but it’s also important to bring in artifacts from elsewhere so return visitors can see something new.”

Snyder, who also has a background in architecture and graphic design, then develops a floor plan and designs the exhibit so that it ties visually and thematically with other exhibits in the museum. He also does graphic design and production of the informative panels that tell the stories.

The exhibits are layered to please all types of visitors, which Snyder says museum curators call “streakers, strollers and scholars” who spend anywhere from an hour to a whole day at the museum. Streakers move quickly through the museum, typically only reading the subject titles, artifact labels, and photo captions that grab their attention. Strollers take more time, reading the written text and other information they find interesting to learn something new.  Scholars spend the most time, gaining as much knowledge as possible by reading in-depth, detailed information.

Construction begins just a couple of weeks prior to the exhibit opening, with consideration given to the environment.

“We try to be as green as possible for our temporary exhibits, so we reuse as much as we possibly can,” Snyder says. “All of the studs are screwed together so we can unscrew it when it comes down, we can completely reconfigure the space and then screw it all back together to match the new design.”

Photo courtesy of Eisenhower Presidential Museum

Everything is created internally, which is no small job. In the past three-and-a-half years, more than 10,000 square feet of display space has been designed - the two anchor exhibits total almost 6,000 square feet and the temporary exhibit space occupying 2,500 square feet will change four times over that time period, according to Snyder.

“We even do things like large graphics that we design and create here in-house,” he says. “Since they are two-sided, we can always flip it over and use the other side of the board. It’s green and it is cost effective.”

Cost is an important issue, as all funds used to build exhibits come from private donations.

“A point I want to stress is we do not receive any federal funding to do exhibits and programs; no tax dollars are spent on creating these exhibits,” Snyder says. “All Presidential Libraries have their own private 501(c)(3) non-profit foundations. We have the Eisenhower Foundation here that is responsible for raising the money for us to be able to run over to, for instance, Webb Lumber to buy a few more 2x4s or RHV for a gallon of paint.”

The Eisenhower Presidential Library Museum and Boyhood Home is located at 200 Southeast Fourth Street in Abilene. For more information, visit http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/, email Eisenhower.library@nara.gov or phone 877 RING IKE (877.746.4453)  or 785.263.6700.

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