Presidential Libraries: A National Resource

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Presidential LibrariesA National Resource

• Presentation by Teresa Rice
• MLIS Graduate Student
• SLIS at LSU
• Summer 2004

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Library of Congress
• The Manuscript Division
• Washington Coolidge
• Hayes Model
• First Official Presidential Library
• FDR at Hyde Park
• Presidential Libraries Act of 1955
• Truman LBJ
• Herbert Hoover

• The Nixon Exception
• Presidential Recordings and Materials
  Preservation Act 1974
• Presidential Records Act amended in 1978
• Ford present
• Ford says tradition unbroken
• Presidential Libraries Act of 1986
• Conclusion
• Credits

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• It seems to me that the dedication of a library
  is in itself an act of faith, to bring
• together the records of the past and to house
  them in buildings where they will be
• preserved for the use of men and women in the
  future. A nation must believe in
• three things
• It must believe in the past.
• It must believe in the future.
• It must, above all, believe in the capacity of
  its own people so to learn from the past that
  they can gain in judgment in creating their own
  future.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, June 30, 1941

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Presidential Libraries

• Repositories of the social, economic, and
  political past
• Invaluable primary source material to capture
  each era
• Wealth of research information covering topics
  such as
• Great Depression, World War II, dropping of the
  first Atomic bomb, Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil
  Rights, Watergate, Hostage Crisis in Iran, Space
  Shuttle Challenger Explosion, fall of the Berlin
  Wall
• Presidential libraries offer more than
  maintenance of presidential papers
• Keepers of the nations identity
• Maintained by National Archives and Records
  Administration (NARA)

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The Library of Congress

• The Manuscript Division of the Library of
  Congress is the nation's oldest and most
  comprehensive presidential library
• Began acquiring presidential papers in 1897
• Papers of 23 presidents from George Washington to
  Calvin Coolidge
• About two million manuscript items
• Digitizing collections
• Not maintained by NARA
• Library of Congress The Presidency

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Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial Museum and Library

• The first presidential library
• Not included in the presidential library system
• Never administered by NARA
• Located in Spiegel Grove, Freemont, Ohio and
  dedicated in 1916
• Serves as model for FDR

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Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum

• First official library in the presidential
  library system
• Located in Hyde Park, NY and dedicated on June
  30, 1941
• Guiding objectives of FDR
• collection kept intact
• housed in one location
• permanent property of the nation
• available to the public

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Presidential Libraries Act of 1955

• 1939 joint resolution of Congress enacted
  legislation specifically for the Roosevelt
  presidential library to
• authorized the archivist to accept the title to
  the land
• authorize the private foundation to build a
  library
• accept the collection as a gift
• authorize for operation and maintenance of the
  library
• Harry S. Truman follows FDRs example
• presidential library system established
• The Presidential Libraries Act of 1955
• National Archives to take possession of each
  succeeding presidential library
• Avoids need for special legislation specifically
  targeted to each new presidential library

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Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum and Library

• First presidential library completed under the
  Presidential Libraries Act of 1955
• Located in Independence, MO
• Dedicated July 6, 1957

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Dwight D. Eisenhower Library

• Located in Abilene, Kansas
• Dedicated on May 1, 1962

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Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum

• Located in West Branch, Iowa
• Although Herbert Hoover was president prior to
  FDR, his library was not dedicated until August
  10,1962
• Collections of other significant historical
  figures from Hoover era such as Lewis Strauss,
  Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Ronald Reagan rededicated the library in 1992
  after massive renovations

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John F. Kennedy Library and Museum

• Located at Columbia Point in Boston,
  Massachusetts
• Dedicated October 20, 1979
• Holds significant amounts of material on JFKs
  brother, Robert
• Special collection devoted to the assassinations
  of JFK and RFK
• Former first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy,
  responsible for the inclusion of the Ernest
  Hemingway Collection

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Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

• Located on the University of Texas campus in
  Austin, Texas
• Dedicated on May 22, 1971
• LBJ quoted at the dedication
• It is all here the story of our time with the
  bark off. This Library will show the facts, not
  just the joy and triumphs, but the sorrow and
  failures, too. I hope that visitors who come
  here will achieve a closer understanding of the
  presidency and that young people will get a
  clearer comprehension of what this nation tried
  to do in an eventful period of its history.

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The Nixon Exception

• Issue of public versus private ownership of
  presidential papers
• Resignation of Nixon
• Watergate
• Letter to the archivist, Arthur F. Sampson
• donating records but with extreme restrictions on
  access
• certain documents to be destroyed
• letter made public
• Congressional hearings
• Supreme Court set aside the letter and impounded
  the Nixon papers
• NARA still maintains guardianship of Nixons
  presidential papers
• Presidential Recordings and Materials
  Preservation Act 1974
• In 1978, the Presidential Records Act amended
• presidential papers are public domain

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Gerald R. Ford Library

• Concern the presidential library system would not
  continue
• Ford was eager to donate his papers
• Ford insists the tradition of donating
  presidential papers unbroken
• Located on the North Campus of the University of
  Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Dedicated on April 27, 1981
• Presidential museum separately located in Grand
  Rapids, Michigan

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Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

• Located in Atlanta, Georgia
• Dedicated on October 1, 1986
• National security restrictions on some federal
  materials
• Significant portion of the collection consists of
  papers and books by Rosalynn Carter
• an active member of her husbands administration
• sitting in on cabinet meetings
• vocal about white house policies

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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

• Located in Simi Valley, CA
• Dedicated on November 4, 1991
• Collection includes Reagans battle with
  Alzheimers disease
• Nancy Reagan has a strong presence at the
  presidential library
• active role as first lady
• programs against drugs

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Richard Nixon Library Birthplace

• Located in Yorba Linda, CA
• Opened in March 1994
• No dedication
• presidential papers of Nixon remain in the
  custody NARA
• Library is privately operated
• prides itself as operating similarly to the other
  presidential libraries
• Core collection consists of
• private pre-Presidential papers (1946-1968)
• post-Presidential papers (1974 - 1994)

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George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

• Located on the Texas AM University campus in
  College Station, Texas
• Dedicated November 6, 1997
• Significant collection of materials about and
  regarding the first lady, Barbara Bush

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William J. Clinton Presidential Center

• Currently under construction in Little Rock,
  Arkansas
• Expected dedication will occur in November 2004
• Clintons papers currently in the custody of NARA
  where they are meticulously evaluated for
• Content
• Public versus private status
• NARA arranges the presidential papers while the
  library is under construction

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Presidential Libraries Act of 1986

• Growing concerns over competition to continually
  outsize the previous presidential library
• Act amended to address the size of the private
  endowments
• Size of endowments must be compatible with the
  size of the new libraries

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Conclusion

• Current issues concerning presidential libraries
• Digitization of materials
• Many presidential libraries have significant
  digitization projects creating full text Internet
  access to popular primary source materials
• Library of Congress is working to digitize their
  collections
• In 1996, in an effort to share our nation's
  presidential collections with an even greater
  audience worldwide, the Manuscript Division
  embarked on a program to digitize the
  presidential collections, beginning with the
  papers of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
  Other collections will follow.
• Prior to FDR, the final disposition of
  presidential papers was left to chance
• Now a systematic practice exists to create
  permanent structures to house not only the papers
  of the president, but significant primary source
  documents in a variety of formats from a variety
  of sources that capture the era and personality
  of the nation and the world.

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• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• BOOKS
• Elliott, Jannean. Presidential Papers and the
  Presidential Library System. Provo, Utah The
  School of Library and Information Sciences,
  Brigham Young University, 1981.
• Hyland, Pat. Presidential Libraries and Museums
  An Illustrated Guide. Washington, D.C.
  Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1995.
• Modern First Ladies Their Documentary Legacy.
  Smith, Nancy Kegan and Mary C. Ryan, editors.
  Washington, D.C. National Archives and Records
  Administration, 1989.
• Smith, Curt. Windows on the White House The
  Story of Presidential Libraries. South Bend, IN
  Diamond Communications, Inc., 1997.
• Veit, Fritz. Presidential Libraries and
  Collections. Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1987.
• PERIODICALS
• Fitzgerald, Carol Bondhus. The Presidential
  Papers, George Washington to Calvin Coolidge An
  Introduction to the Presidential Papers Microfilm
  Series. The History Teacher. 17, 4 (August
  1984) 545-565.
• Greenwell, Regina. The Oral History Collections
  of the Presidential Libraries. The Journal of
  American History. 84, 2 (September 1997)
  596-603.
• Leopold, Richard W. The Historian and the
  Federal Government. The Journal of American
  History. 64, 1 (June 1977) 5-23.
• Zobrist, Benedict K. Resources of Presidential
  Libraries for the History of the Second World
  War. Military Affairs. 39, 2 (April 1975) 82-85.

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• INTERNET RESOURCES
• Bush George Bush Presidential Library and
  Museum. http//bushlibrary.tamu.edu/
• Carter Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.
  http//www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/
• Clinton Presidential Materials Project.
  http//clinton.archives.gov/welcome/welcome.html
• Clinton William J. Clinton Presidential Center.
  http//www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com/lib_index
  .html
• Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.
  http//eisenhower.archives.gov/
• Ford Gerald R. Ford Library. http//www.fordlibra
  rymuseum.gov/
• Hayes Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library.
  http//www.rbhayes.org/
• Hoover Herbert Hoover Presidential
  Library-Museum. http//hoover.archives.gov/
• Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and
  Museum. http//www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/
• Kennedy John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
  http//www.jfklibrary.org/
• Library of Congress. The Presidency.
  http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/mcchtml/preshm.html
• NARA. Presidential Libraries.
  http//www.archives.gov/presidential_libraries/
• Nixon Presidential Materials Staff.
  http//www.archives.gov/nixon/
• Nixon Richard Nixon Library Birthplace
  Foundation. http//www.nixonfoundation.org/
• Reagan Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
  http//www.reaganlibrary.com/pma/
• Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
  Library and Museum. http//www.fdrlibrary.marist.e
  du/
• Truman Presidential Museum and Library.
  http//www.trumanlibrary.org/

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Teresa Rice

• Graduate Student
• SLIS at LSU
• 267 Coates Hall
• Baton Rouge, LA 70803
• [phone]