New Exhibit Opens at Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum
By Angela Tudico | National Archives News
Church Winter Scene. Painted by Fred Waring, famed bandleader of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. From the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
Blue Birds. Painted by Col. Oveta Culp Hobby, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1953 to 1955. From the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
Mission Scene. Painted by J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 to 1972. From the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
Water Mill. Painted by Broadway star Ethel Merman. From the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
Mission Church. Painted by Nelson A. Rockefeller, Under-Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1953 to 1954. From the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
The Stag at Eve. Painted by Milton Stover Eisenhower, the youngest brother of President Eisenhower and Political Adviser to the President from 1952 to 1961. From the collection of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.
ABILENE, February 17, 2023 — A new exhibit, By The Numbers, is open at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. The exhibit will run through December 2023 and features artwork from the Eisenhower Library’s own collection.
Museum visitors may be surprised to see artwork showcased at a Presidential Library, even though Eisenhower himself was an avid amateur painter. But this is no ordinary artwork.
These 20 pieces were painted using paint-by-number kits, a popular new hobby during the 1950s, when Eisenhower was in office. The artists included members of Ike’s cabinet and his close friends.
"At first glance, it appears to be a typical art exhibit,” explains curator William Snyder. "We tend to associate these names—Hoover, Goodpaster, Rockefeller—as key historical figures, or Ethel Merman as the famous Broadway star. You don’t expect to see a completed paint-by-number piece with their signature on it. This exhibit shows a more personal, human side of the Eisenhower administration.”
President Eisenhower received the artwork as a gift after his appointments secretary, Thomas Edwin Stephens, handed out the paint-by-number kits to Oval Office visitors in the mid-1950s. These guests returned the completed artwork, which was given to ‘the painter President’ and displayed around the West Wing of the White House.
Though several pieces from this collection were previously displayed in the late 1970s, this is the first time the set will be displayed in its entirety. The exhibit also includes an additional 20 original artworks that some contributors chose to create for President Eisenhower, including Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, and Thomas Stephens himself.
Museum visitors can expect to see paintings depicting everything from birds to winter scenes, as well as an original paint-by-numbers kit.
The exhibit, located in the Eisenhower Museum’s Special Exhibit Gallery, is included with museum admission. Visit eisenhowerlibrary.gov for more information.