Thanks to the PSA APG’s Elisha & Elizabeth Atkins Award I was able to visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, in September 2025. My research project centres on a 1962 campaign stop which the former president made in Columbia, South Carolina. I am using this event as a case study to explore Eisenhower’s post-presidential role in the Republican Party and his engagement with southern Republicanism.

I was in Abilene for a week and spent five full days in the archives. I examined an array of primary documents including speech texts, correspondence to and from Eisenhower, event planning details, and an array of other office materials. Thanks to this research I have been able to situate Ike’s Columbia speech within his broader campaigning during the 1962 mid-terms. I have begun identifying continuity and change in how he approached the GOP’s southern growth in his post-presidency compared to his presidency. Furthermore, the correspondence in particular shed light on Eisenhower’s relations with other key Republican leaders during the 1960s – especially figures to his right, such as Senator Barry Goldwater or party chairman William Miller – and the extent to which southern Republicans wished to engage with Eisenhower, notwithstanding the legacy of Little Rock.

The primary research I undertook at the Eisenhower Library has directly shaped my research direction and publications plans – it was in the Library’s reading room that I realised this project could form the basis of two journal articles and not just one! I now plan to produce one article comparing Eisenhower’s 1952 and 1962 appearances in Columbia, alongside another assessing’s his post-presidency in relation to southern and conservative Republicanism. During my week in Abilene, I was also able to tour the Eisenhower Presidential Museum and Boyhood Home, as well as enjoying the town’s other tourist sites – including the world’s biggest belt buckle!

I am incredibly grateful to the PSA APG for giving me this award and making this research trip possible. I look forward to hopefully presenting my research at future APG events.