Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library The Eisenhower Presidential Library & Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas was started in 1962. It includes a Visitor Center, Dwight D. Eisenhower's boyhood home, the Place of Meditation, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, in a park like setting. Allow about 2 hours if you wish to see it all. Many things at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential complex are free, except the Eisenhower boyhood home at and the Eisenhower Museum, which have an admission price of $20 ($15 for museum only, $7 for home only). Admission is free July 4, November 11 and the first Saturday of June when there is a free Symphony at Sunset Annual D-Day Commemoration Concert. The annual concert is held outdoors on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. The museum had a major renovation in 2018 and 2019. It is much more polished since the renovation and actually feels larger than before, though I think that is just good design. The exhibits which I enjoyed the most included World War 1, particularly D-Day, the early US Space Program, and a small gallery devoted to Ike's wife, Mamie. An hour was about the right amount of time for me to spend at the museum, and about 45 minutes for the rest of the Presidential complex. Some visitors will be satisfied with a tour of the rest of the complex, omitting the museum. The Eisenhower Library includes 480 manuscript collections; over 300,000 still photographs; thousands of hours of motion picture film, audio tapes and discs; oral history transcripts; 25,000 books and many other objects. But, you can't see the collections. The library has just one gallery open to the public. The library is free and open from 9 AM - 4:45 PM, 362 days a year as of this posting. The hours are extended in the summer. Call to confirm at (785) 263-6700. The Place of Meditation is a combination chapel and Mamie and Ike Eisenhower's tomb. Admission to the Place of Meditation is also free. While you are in Abilene, visit the Greyhound Hall of Fame, across the street from the Eisenhower Presidential Museum. Admission is free and the Hall of Fame is open 7 days a week. Eight Wonders of Kansas The Kansas Sampler Foundation selected Eisenhower Presidential Museum as one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas. Other sites selected as the Eight Wonders of Kansas include the Cathedral of the Plains, Kansas Cosmosphere, Monument & Castle Rocks, and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
Eisenhower
Museum's web site
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