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Unique scrapbook album compiled by Eisenhower's aide, Brigadier General Robert L. Schulz, and his wife, Dottie, measuring 12.75 x 14.75, containing various letters and ephemera primarily related to Eisenhower's White House years. Includes 16 letters signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower (one signed "Dwight D. Eisenhower," all others signed "D. E."), fifteen items signed by Mamie Doud Eisenhower (five cards, nine letters, and one photograph), and a variety of other ephemera, including a printed "The President" visiting card, sent along with flowers during Dottie's illness in 1959; several original photographs including Eisenhower throwing out the first pitch at a Washington Senators baseball game and candid snapshots from a vacation together; various cards and invitations; a few Eisenhower form letters bearing facsimile signatures; and a number of newspaper clippings. All items are permanently affixed within the album and covered with a thin laminating material.
Excerpts from Dwight D. Eisenhower's letters, mostly expressing gratitude for Schulz's service and sending thanks for gifts:
- December 27, 1949: "Of course I got to say a brief thank-you for the tie case, but I was so busy with my Santa Claus duties that I really did not get to tell you how very convenient I am going to find it. My ties are forever getting rolled up in a ball in a corner of my suitcase and becoming unfit to wear. This solves the problem completely."
- December 26, 1953: "The Schulz family always manages to think of things that please me enormously—and the nice wooly slippers are no exception. Thank you very much."
- December 30, 1953: "As Mamie and I have thought over our many happy memories of this holiday season, we come to the conclusion that the very nicest and most thoughtful remembrances have come from those with whom we are closely associated."
- September 17, 1954: "Happy Birthday! I hope you find enough leisure time today to have a really fine celebration."
- October 14, 1954: "Perhaps the enclosed knife will serve to remind you that I realize constantly how much I owe to you for helping to make this year's stay in Denver such a pleasant experience."
- October 14, 1954: "For quite the nicest birthday card I received, I thank you."
- December 24, 1954: "If you could only provide me with a little real talent, by now I'd be the best—and the best equipped—'painter' in the entire profession. Thank you very much for adding a smock to my painting room paraphernalia."
- December 29, 1954: "My finest Christmas present has been delivered all year long—the cooperation and the friendship and the help you give me constantly on all sorts of problems, personal and official. My gratitude is equaled only by my profound hope that I may continue to have your invaluable assistance for many years to come.
- October 18, 1955: "Thank you so much for the birthday card you sent me."
- September 11, 1956: "This is the first birthday anniversary you have celebrated not in Colorado for quite a few years—and I assure you I am just as sad about it as are you…The seventeenth of September always gives me a special opportunity to thank you again for all you do to make easier the personal and official problems that I have."
- September 15, 1957: "Despite my bad memory (which you know so well), one date I do manage to keep in mind, without prompting, is your birthday anniversary. If I am not mistaken Tuesday brings around, however, one of those milestones that I suspect you would just as soon ignore. But from my advanced position I can only say that fifty seems to be a mere boy."
- December 30, 1957: "Again a year's end is upon us. Together we have spent twelve months in the onerous, demanding, often confining but always rewarding, work of the Federal government. So I want to try once more to tell you of my lasting appreciation of the great service you are rendering…Above everything else, I want to thank you for your dedication to our country's welfare and for the unswerving loyalty which have characterized your work in our country's behalf."
- January 30, 1959: "Thank you very much for sending me Mr. Watkins' interesting and provocative sermon on the subject 'Are Public Schools Necessary.'"
- October 14, 1959: "How thoughtful of you to send me a handsome monogrammed score card holder, and plenty of refills for my use at what I hope will be many future bridge games."
- December 29, 1959: "As the last few days of the 1950 decade draw to a close and we approach the final full year of the present Administration, once again I am impelled to try to express to you my gratitude for your personal assistance to me. Sometimes, in the rush of official matters, I feel remiss in acknowledging the real debt I owe to you—a debt, incidentally, that I can never repay but which I shall always remember."
- October 15, 1960: "Thanks so much for your amusing card of good wishes from all the Schulz family for my ancient birthday."
In overall very good to fine condition, with overall staining to a few of the letters.
Born in 1907, Robert L. Schulz attended the Academy of Advanced Traffic in New York and entered the field of traffic management in the mid-1930s. At the beginning of World War II in 1942, he was commissioned a captain in the Office of the Chief of Transportation, assigned to the Traffic Control Division. He began arranging transportation for General Dwight D. Eisenhower as early as 1945 and was appointed as Ike's aide-de-camp in 1947. His duties included arranging transportation and handling personal business matters for Eisenhower and his family, acting as a gatekeeper and discreet channel of communication for the general's family and close friends.
As a five-star general, Eisenhower was entitled to keep his aide, and Schulz remained with him when he became president of Columbia University in 1948 and when he took command of NATO forces in Europe in 1950. Schulz then served as a military aide to President Eisenhower for the duration of his term in the White House, from 1953 to 1961. During this time, in addition to accompanying the president nearly everywhere he went, Schulz represented Eisenhower at ceremonies, arranged foreign trips, and spoke to reporters during his illnesses. When President Eisenhower left office, Schulz became his executive assistant, and in 1969 he was appointed by President Nixon as Special Assistant to the President for Liaison with Former Presidents. For more than twenty years, Brigadier General Robert L. Schulz served by the side of Dwight D. Eisenhower, allowing incredible access to one of the towering figures of the American 20th century.
