After attending public schools in Abilene, Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, beginning a long and distinguished military career. Later in life, Eisenhower remembered his family's emphasis on education: "From the beginning of our schooling, Mother and Father encouraged us [Eisenhower boys] to go to college. They said constantly, 'Anyone who really wants an education can get it.' But my father, remembering that he didn't become a farmer as his father had hoped, scrupulously refrained from suggesting courses of study." Eisenhower was a talented athlete in high school and at West Point before injuring his knee. "School House to White House" includes a photograph of Eisenhower on the Abilene High School football team.
To learn more about the presidents and view photographs and documents from their youth, visit School House to White House: The Education of the Presidents, on display through February 23, 2013.
The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 15 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by Federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. For more information, call 816-268-8000, email us here,
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