BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) – In 1952, Genevieve Herrell was working as a civilian nurse for the United States Army, when she got a life-changing assignment: helping care for the mother-in-law of then-President Harry Truman.
That job bloomed into a 25-year career with the White House medical unit, where she remained through Gerald Ford’s presidency in 1976. Herrell witnessed some of the biggest events in presidential history, including Richard Nixon’s trip to Russia in 1972.
Through that quarter century in the White House, Herrell amassed a one-of-a-kind collection of presidential memorabilia, including holiday cards from first families, travel credentials, and even a formal dinner invitation from the premier of China.
Herrell died in 2013, aged 96, leaving her stories and her collection to her son Gregory, a Virginia Tech alumnus, who didn’t know what to do with it all at first.
“I talked with Paul Quigley here at Virginia Tech while attending a Civil War weekend, and he suggested I get up with the archives department here at Virginia Tech, so that led to this,” he said. “Of course I am an alumnus at Virginia Tech, so it made it especially great and very pleasing to me that not only would I keep the collection together, but it would be where I went to school.”
Once the school got its hands on the trove of White House artifacts, it realized time was of the essence.
Anthony Wright de Hernandez, the community collections archivist at the Special Collections library, and the curator of the exhibit, said this was a great opportunity since much of the collection was geared around the holidays.
“We don’t normally pull for an exhibit quite this soon after getting something,” he said. “We haven’t fully processed the collection and don’t know everything that’s in, but we knew it had a large selection of Christmas items, and the opportunity was too good.”
Herrell said his mother’s legacy is more than just the cards and letters.
He said in serving first families for 25 years, she proved that some things, and some people, truly can transcend party lines.
“Politics didn’t make any difference to her,” Herrell said. “She wasn’t going to give tell-all books to things like that, so they felt comfortable with her and appreciated the kind of person she was.”
The exhibit is open to the public until December 20.