Vintage 8.75 x 12.5 Harris & Ewing photo of Truman in a handsome bust-length pose, signed and inscribed in the lower border in fountain pen, "Best wishes & kindest regards to Dr. Edward H. Pruden on his tenth year at the First Baptist Church, Harry S. Truman.” Framed and in very fine condition.



Raised in Presbyterian and Baptist churches, Truman was baptized as a Baptist in 1902 and belonged to the Grandview Baptist Church in Grandview, Missouri. He sometimes described himself as a 'lightfoot Baptist' because of his love of non-Baptist recreations, but also wrote, 'I’m a Baptist because I think that sect gives the common man the shortest and most direct approach to God.'



Dr. Edward Hughes Pruden was nicknamed 'the President's Pastor' because both Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter regularly attended the First Baptist Church in Northwest Washington where he preached. He was widely praised as an advocate of civil rights, ecumenical activism, and strict separation of church and state.