Visitors to American Legion National Headquarters for next week’s Fall Meetings will have the chance to see a new exhibit marking the 75th anniversary of Boys Nation.
Visitors to American Legion National Headquarters in Indianapolis for next week’s Fall Meetings will have the chance to see a new exhibit marking the 75th anniversary of Boys Nation.
The American Legion Library and Archives, located on the fourth floor of National Headquarters, has arranged the exhibit cases in the fourth-floor lobby and within the library itself to display material from the 1946 session – then called Boys Forum of National Government – and the decades beyond. There are buttons, yearbooks, a Senate journal chronicling the young senators’ legislative work, and photos of the senators over the years, including the 1963 session during which future president Bill Clinton met current president John F. Kennedy.
Boys Nation, of course, developed out of Boys State, and that history is also covered. The library has obtained a panoramic photo and cap from the first Boys State in Springfield, Ill., in 1935. The exhibit showcases its development into a national program and includes photos, publications, felt signs and buttons from programs across the country.
- Library & Museum