Since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s death in 1969, the Eisenhower Foundation has an annual tradition of laying a wreath at the Place of Meditation — Ike’s final resting place in Abilene, Kansas — on his birthday, October 14.

With the completion of the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C., the Eisenhower Foundation has expanded the gesture by including an honorary wreath delivered to the site. This year the patriotic wreath, pictured, was placed near the stone which commemorates Ike’s 1945 Homecoming Speech in Abilene.