By Chad King

Speaking of Scrapbooks, I got to work with a new one today that was very interesting. To my surprise, I discovered that the museum has a large photo collection of his 1948 presidential campaign. I was assigned to scan and identify many images from this collection to make available online. Arguably one of the greatest upsets in electoral history, President Truman ended up defeating his opponent Governor Thomas Dewey against heavy odds. The photos in the scrapbook reveal in many ways how Truman made his victory possible. Truman traveled all across the United States and visited towns and cities that were not used to seeing a presidential candidate, and his appearances attracted large crowds. The constant traveling and campaigning enabled Truman to connect with the people and it assuredly helped seal their vote. Many of the photos were just pictures of ordinary people gathering to see the president. The photos assembled in this collection can let a person see what Truman saw with his own eyes as he was on the campaign trail.