(1/2) Eisenhower National Historic Site announces the launch of its new, award-winning, virtual museum exhibit. The Eisenhower story presented in this virtual exhibit covers Ike's careers as General and President, Mamie as his First Lady, the Eisenhower Farms cattle operation, and the popular culture of the 1950s that both Ike and Mamie had a part in shaping.

The web site features multimedia slide shows and sound clips, a virtual tour of the Eisenhower home, a time line of Eisenhower's life, and "Teaching with Museum Collections" lesson plans for teaching with objects featured in the virtual museum exhibit. The exhibit can be accessed through the Eisenhower National Historic Site web page at www.nps.gov/eise.

This virtual exhibit is the latest in a series created by the National Park Service Museum Management Program in collaboration with parks to increase access to NPS collections across the United States. These exhibits, together with "Teaching with Museum Collections" lesson plans bring park museum collections, interpretation, and education programs directly into homes and classrooms to engage learners of all ages.

The Eisenhower project was the result of a team effort. The site's staff selected about 300 museum items for inclusion. A professional photographer took high quality images of the objects and the interior of the Eisenhower home. These images, along with historic photographs from the site's collection and the collections of the National Archives and the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, are included.

The Eisenhower staff wrote the interpretive text and photo captions and coordinated a teacher workshop with area teachers to write lesson plans for the exhibit. The Museum Management staff coordinated the project and designed the web exhibit.

The virtual exhibit recently received an award for excellence from the National Park Service Northeast Region.