Bundschu, Henry A. Papers

The papers of Henry A. Bundschu consist of correspondence and other materials relating to Bundschu’s friendship with Harry S. Truman before, during, and after Truman’s presidency. The collection is comprised of a variety of documents relating to the two men’s friendship. Included are several letters exchanged between Bundschu and Truman, mostly personal messages regarding life in Independence, or invitations to visit.

Size: Less than one linear foot (about sixty pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The Truman library received no donation of copyright from the donor of these papers. Documents prepared by U.S. government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the authors of the documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Jeremy Ford (2005) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The Henry A. Bundschu Papers mostly consist of correspondence and invitations accumulated by Bundschu during Harry S. Truman’s years as Senator, Vice President, President, and former President. The correspondence relates to Bundschu’s long friendship with Truman, which began while they were boys growing up in Independence, Missouri.

The documents in the Bundschu Papers are dated from 1939-1956, with a majority dated from 1945-1951. The folders in this collection are arranged chronologically. The collection consists of less than one linear foot of material (about sixty pages).

Many invitations are filed in this collection. Truman even invited Bundschu, a Republican, to the 1945 Inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In one letter to Bundschu, Truman humorously invited him to “pollute” his swimming pool at the White House. (Bundschu often boasted that he was the only Republican ever allowed to use the President’s pool.)

This collection also has many letters between Bundschu and Truman concerning Bundschu’s work as a bankruptcy referee, mutual friends, politics, and life in Independence. There are two letters to Bundschu in the collection from Truman’s daughter, Margaret, and his sister Mary Jane.