Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum, Abilene

Dwight D. Eisenhower is one of the greatest leaders in American history. I had read the biography "Soldier of Democracy" (great book!) and I always wanted to visit Abilene. Welcome center staff very friendly. The tour of the home was informative and very interesting with all of the original items. You really got an appreciation of his childhood. The grounds are incredibly spacious, so we enjoyed walking them and visiting the chapel with his grave, and walking to the museum. The museum is well-done and offered detailed insight into his life and the correlated time period in history. We only had 90 minutes, but I could have spent a half day here easily. I left with a deeper appreciation of one our finest leaders. Highly recommend and worth the detour from I-70.

I am disappointed in the newly renovated museum. It is more like a story board with a few artifacts sprinkled in, than a museum of the history of a great president, Dwight David Eisenhower, and his wonderful wife Mamie. Mostly murals, and short movies, the miniatures were cheap looking, there are some great antique stores around with authentic toy tanks, cars, trucks, etc from the time period, no need to go so cheap. Prior to renovation there were 2 levels with an overlook to a WWII tank and a large window looking out to the trees. There was also a room dedicated to Mamie with more clothes and artifacts. These were fantastic visuals and fun. The only positive was the circular world map which lit to highlight the time table of the war around the world. ☹️ I hope they don't renovate his boyhood home.