SUMMARY: This offering is a relic
of 1948 campaign signed by all the First Family. Price:$1,250.00
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Harry S Truman (1874-1972).Senator, Vice-President and 34th President
of the United States. Bess Truman and Margaret Truman.
Signed menu, October 10-16, 1948.
An uncommon and very desirable souvenir of Harry Truman’s
dramatic 1948 'whistle-stop' campaign for election as President.
The menu is signed on the front cover with large, bold signatures
by Harry Truman, Bess Truman and Margaret
Truman. The menu is a stiff board with a gold Great Seal
on the cover as shown. Inside are two facing pages with menu
selections and prices. The original decorative red, blue and
gold ribbon is intact. There is some overall  toning on
the cover but the signatures are fine and show no signs of fading.
The piece is in excellent condition. On the back of the menu
is the signature and address of a local Democratic Committee
man from Valpariso, Indiana, who presumably was given a seat
on the train for part of the tour. Although the signatures are
undated it was undoubtedly signed aboard the train during the
week of October 10-16, 1948.
Truman’s 1948 “upset”
win to keep the White House is one of the fabled stories of Truman’s
presidency and 20th Century American politics. He was an unpopular
leader who lacked both a machine and a natural political base.
Truman was widely perceived as a sure loser in 1948. Showing
the feistiness that became his hallmark he set out on a nationwide
train tour to carry his message directly to the average, middle
American voter. When his special train, carrying dignitaries
and reporters as well as The First Family pulled into to the
stations President Truman would stand on the platform of the
end car and address the waiting crowds.
In David McCullough’s biography
Truman the author devotes several pages to the October
whistle-stop tour that traveled through Ohio and Indiana. It
was on one of the morning stops in Indiana that Clark Clifford
snuck off the train to buy a copy of Newsweek that had the much
anticipated poll of 50 political journalists as to who would
win the presidency. Not wanting to share the depressing unanimous
projections that Truman would lose he hid the magazine under
his coat and got back on the train but Truman stopped him and
demanded to see the article and then proclaimed that none of
them knew what they were talking about.
Truman defeated Dewey and the
story behind that headline was written along thousands of miles
of railroad track. Offered here is a very desirable relic from
an important and well documented week of that journey which led
back to the White House.
The menu will come with a letter
of authenticity as to its origin,
history and authenticity.Also, an 8 in x 10 in photograph
of the Truman's on the rear platform of the train will accompany
the signed menu
Price:$1,250.00
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