<--PREV Doc #216  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #218 Document #217; May 27, 1953 To Charles Moreau Harger Series: EM, AWF, Name Series: Eisenhower Foundation The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953 Chapter 3: "A time for continued vigilance"   Dear Mr. Harger:1 Much as I appreciate the offer which has been made to have Mr. de Weldon do a bust of me for presentation to the Abilene Museum, I am simply unable to allot the time necessary for the sittings.2 It would not be possible for the artist to work during my ordinary routine, as he suggests. I have an alternative, and I think preferable, suggestion. A very good friend of mine, Mr. Ellis Slater, of 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, has a bust of me which was done by Captain Nisson A. Tregor.3 (Captain Tregor has done two or three, incidentally, and they are, in my opinion, the best ones I have seen.) Mr. Slater has indicated that he would like to donate the bust he has to the Museum, with a suitably inscribed plaque. I think it would be nice if you wrote to Mr. Slater and asked him if his offer still stands, and make whatever arrangements are necessary.4 With best wishes, Sincerely P.S. I am returning Mr. Onion's letter to you.5 1 Harger was president of the Eisenhower Foundation and an old friend of Eisenhower (for background see Eisenhower Papers, vols. X-XIII). 2 Felix Weihs de Welden (Ph.D. University of Vienna 1929) was a well known sculptor. 3 Slater, president of Frankfort Distillers, and Eisenhower had met at Augusta National Golf Club in 1948 (on their friendship see ibid.; and Ellis D. Slater, The Ike I Knew [Baltimore, 1980]). Army Captain Nison A. Tregor, who had been assigned to the Fine Arts and Monuments Commission, had restored various art treasures that had been scattered across Europe during World War II. The bronze bust, sculpted in 1945, shows Eisenhower as a five-star general in military uniform. 4 Slater would present the bust to the Eisenhower Museum in July 1953; it is currently displayed in the Eisenhower Library's permanent collection (Correspondence, Dennis H. J. Medina, Museum Curator, DDEL, Sept. 25, 1989, EP). In the coming weeks Eisenhower's daughter-in-law would present a bust of the General to the United States Military Academy (see Irving to Eisenhower, May 8, 1953, and Eisenhower to Irving, May 11, 1953, AWF/N: West Point Misc.). He would also be asked to sit for a portrait (see Shivers to Eisenhower, June 8, 1953, and Eisenhower to Shivers, June 10, 1953, AWF/N). 5 Oliver Lloyd Onion was artist's representative for de Welden. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Charles Moreau Harger, 27 May 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 217. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/217.cfm <--PREV Doc #216  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #218

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