Talk:Harry S. Truman

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Frequently asked questions

This section is here to provide answers to some questions that have been previously discussed on this talk page.
Note: This FAQ is only here to let people know that these points have previously been addressed, not to prevent any further discussion of these issues.

To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

General Concerns and Questions

Q1: Should Truman's middle initial be written with a period after it? (Yes.)

A1:

Usage with or without the period can be viewed as correct. Truman did not have a middle name, only a middle initial but often signed his name with a period after the S. This is discussed within the article in the section Early life and career.

Q2: (Additional information on A1)

These formal style guides have been consulted:

The Associated Press Stylebook: use "S"
The Chicago Manual of Style: use "S."
The MHRA Style Guide: no guidance
The MLA Style Manual: no guidance
The United States Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000: use "S."
Related Talk discussions: [1], [2], [3], [4]

The original editor created the article as "Harry S. Truman" on August 23, 2001. The article has been stable with this title ever since. Per the Manual of Style "When either of two styles is acceptable, it is inappropriate for an editor to change an article from one style to another unless there is a substantial reason to do so."

Surprisingly, for a man of Truman's stature and given the nature of the events that he was involved in, the use of the period is the most discussed topic. See the talk page for current discussions and see the links at the top of the talk page for archived discussions.

Simply changing the "S." within the article will be reverted, as it will no longer match the article title.

To propose that the article be renamed, follow the instructions at requesting potentially controversial moves. Create the discussions as noted and give logical and compelling reasons for changing the article title along with supporting evidence.

The supporting article Bibliography of Harry S. Truman must also be considered.

As of the November 7, 2008 version,[5] there are only five instances where this could be changed:

article title
main infobox
lead
cabinet infobox
photo caption

You cannot change the "S." where it is used in a quote or as a proper name. As of the November 7, 2008 version,[6]:

There is a quote from Time and one from McCullough.
Book titles used in the article text are Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Year of Decisions and Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: Years of Trial and Hope.
Proper names used in the article are:
- Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs
- President Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering
- Harry S. Truman Bridge
- Harry S. Truman Farm Home
- Harry S. Truman High School (Federal Way)
- Harry S. Truman High School (Independence)
- Harry S. Truman High School (Levittown)
- Harry S. Truman High School (New York City)
- Harry S. Truman Historic District
- Harry S. Truman Little White House
- Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital
- Harry S. Truman National Historic Site
- Harry S. Truman Parkway
- Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
- Harry S. Truman Lake and Harry S. Truman Visitor Center
- USS Harry S. Truman
There are 23 uses in the references section.
Also note the references listed in Bibliography of Harry S. Truman.

Q3: Are there any cases where the "S" without the period should be used? (Yes.)

A3: Yes, but only in two cases. Proper names used in the article are:

Q4: Wasn't Truman in the KKK? (No.)

A4: According to biographer David McCullough, Truman paid a small membership fee in an effort to gain political support from members, but there is no reliable evidence that he was ever inducted or active. See details on this list of KKK members in US politics.

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Harry S. Truman is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on September 19, 2007.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 11, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
August 13, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
April 12, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
August 30, 2007	Featured article candidate	Promoted
May 11, 2010	Featured article review	Demoted
September 11, 2012	Peer review	Not reviewed
October 16, 2012	Peer review	Reviewed
November 18, 2012	Featured article candidate	Promoted
A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on May 8, 2020.
Current status: Featured article

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This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Campos, Paul (July 24, 2021). "The Truman Show". New York magazine.

There is a request, submitted by Catfurball, for an audio version of this article to be created. For further information, see WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia.

The rationale behind the request is: "Important".

On 4 April 2023, it was proposed that this article be moved to Harry Truman. The result of the discussion was not moved.

About the image caption[edit]

Im sorry, but I don't get the point of removing the caption. It gives info about what type of image the image is, and it gives an approximate date. I read about captioning in the style of writing, and this caption seemed okay. Could we possibly revert this? P.S., the manual of style page you linked is a broken link. MrNoobNub2 (talk) 07:03, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I meant MOS:CAPTION. The lack of specificity of the caption, circa 1947, annoyed me for a modern president. But your comments caused me to look at the image closely. What evidence do we have that this is in the public domain? We don't know when it was taken. The Commons image page has a tag that it was taken by a member of the military, but that's not backed up by the page from the National Archives, which in fact provides no information about who took it or why. The caption called it an official portrait, but that is not supported by anything I can see, archives calls it a "formal portrait". While it is a nice picture of Truman, all the archives seems to have is a slightly faded photographic print, and the description on that page mentions the blue background is one common to photographic studios, meaning that it may not be free of copyright as a federal work. So the caption seems a bit dodgy, as does the copyright status, and we may want to consider another image. Wehwalt (talk) 13:00, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

So I looked through the Metadata which is available at the NARA link sourced, and it did say it was taken circa 1947, but the usage of the image is marked as "Undetermined". The Military copyright tag seems to be completely unsourced, making it possible for the image to not be free, making it not suitable for Wikipedia commons. What now? MrNoobNub2 (talk) 15:43, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

We find the best image with a defensible copyright tag.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:01, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Okay then. Should the current image be nominated for deletion then? MrNoobNub2 (talk) 22:46, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I would think so, and I've nommed it here. Maybe if Commons looks through it they'll find info or a keep rationale I don't see. I was looking at the image here that led the article when it passed FAC, but the source is now a dead link. Do you have some thoughts on a good image?--Wehwalt (talk) 01:15, 17 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Presidency - comma[edit]

The first sentence of the Presidency section - “At the White House” should have a subsequent comma for clarity Sweetsaucey (talk) 06:03, 28 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

OK, done. Thank you. Bishonen | tålk 07:42, 28 July 2023 (UTC).[reply]

Why is there a period after his middle name?[edit]

S (just the letter) was Truman's middle name. His grandparents couldn't agree on which of their last names (both began with the letter "S") would be used, so he was simply given the middle name S. Bill S. (talk) 06:22, 22 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This exact question has been asked many times which is why we answered it at the top of this page in the FAQ. Binksternet (talk) 08:34, 22 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 16 September 2023[edit]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

This sentence needs a citation: "It was long thought that his retirement years were financially difficult for Truman, resulting in Congress establishing a pension for former presidents, but evidence eventually emerged that he amassed considerable wealth, some of it while still president."

I suggest three:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/the-truman-show.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2014/04/23/its-good-to-be-the-ex-president-but-it-wasnt-always/?sh=7d08e2a10afd

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/28/opinion/harry-truman-conned-us-all/ Booch221 (talk) 19:01, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

While those are useful citations, and thank you, the sentence is cited to the next citation. If several sentences in a row are cited to the same source, we don't have to add citations to every sentence.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:06, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Correction to source[edit]

The information about Harry Truman practicing the piano two hours a day beginning at 5:00 in the morning was on page 61 of the David McCullough book about him. Mattbeat1981 (talk) 19:49, 17 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]