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Show America's Presidential Libraries: History or Propaganda? Jay Rogers of Hyde Park, New York. He directed that private funds cover the construction of the building, which was to be turned over to the federal government (specifically the National Archives) upon its completion. Roosevelt also requested that a museum be included in the facility. He hoped that members of his administration would also donate their papers to his "library" (Schick et al. 1989, 157). Vanity almost certainly played a role in Roosevelt's decision to create a government-operated facility dedicated to his memory (Schick et al. 1989, 152). Indeed, some contemporary historians were initially skeptical of the idea. One felt that "the Library of Congress, being good enough for Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson, should be good enough for Franklin D. Roosevelt" (Schick et al. 1989, 155). But the popular President Roosevelt encountered little resistance from the legislative branch. On July 18, 1939, a joint resolution of Congress formally established the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (Veit 1987, 4). With the passage of the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955, the same system used to create and administer the Roosevelt Library became the official government procedure for the storage and maintenance of presidential materials. A private foundation was to purchase land and fund the construction of a building containing adequate space to house the records. Then the National Archives was to bring in the president's materials and take over administration of the facility. Despite the bill's title, the text of the legislation refers to the institutions as "presidential archival depositories," which in actual purpose and use is a more accurate description than "presidential libraries" (Presidential Libraries Act of 1955, 695). It has become a common practice for presidents to be buried near their presidential libraries, although this tradition was not mandated by the 1955 legislation. It is also customary to build presidential libraries near the hometowns of the respective presidents. The 1955 legislation placed presidential libraries under the National Archives and Records Service (NARS), the predecessor to NARA, then a branch of the General Services Administration (GSA). The bill also allowed universities to be considered as sites for these libraries; Presidents Johnson, Ford, Carter, and George H.W. Bush have all chosen to locate their respective libraries on college campuses (Schick et al. 1989, 15). In 1964, NARS created the Office of Presidential Libraries, providing a full staff devoted to the operation and administration of the library system. Reforms The Presidential Libraries Act of 1955 assumed that United States presidents would want their records placed in such a facility, although it did not legally require them to do so. All presidents from Hoover (the only president who served before Roosevelt to have a NARA-administered presidential library) to Johnson opted to have their papers placed in presidential libraries. However, in 1974 President Richard Nixon chose to dispose of his presidential papers in a different manner. He signed an agreement with GSA Administrator Arthur Sampson mandating that access to any of his records be obtained only with written permission from Nixon himself. It also stipulated that some of the materials would eventually be destroyed (Veit 1987, 6). At the time this arrangement was made public, anti-Nixon sentiment was widespread due to the Watergate scandal. An outraged Congress reacted by passing the Presidential Recordings and Materials Act in December 1974. This legislation required the GSA to take possession of the Nixon materials and keep them in government custody (Veit 1987, 6-7). In 1978, the passage of the Presidential Records Act finalized a new approach to presidential materials. It established public ownership of "presidential records." It defined presidential records as: "documentary materials...created or received by the President, his immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President in the course of conducting activities that relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President" (Presidential Records Act of 1978, 2523). The legislation defined official records of other agencies, as well as personal records, as being outside the legal definition of a Presidential Record (Presidential Records Act of 1978, 2523). The Act did not apply to already existing presidential materials, but only those of future administrations (Zeljak 2003, 66). Therefore the Act only covers the Reagan Administration and all presidencies after it (though Nixon's materials were already in government custody due to the aforementioned 1974 legislation). In the 1980s, Congress held hearings to address the increasing cost of presidential library maintenance in the federal budget. They resulted in the passage of the Presidential Libraries Act of 1986, which required stricter government oversight of Presidential Libraries. It specifically stated that the government would pay only to maintain a maximum surface area of 70,000 square feet for all future libraries (Schick et al. 1989, 18). Richard Nixon is the only post-Great Depression president who does not have a NARA-administered presidential library commemorating his administration. NARA seized all the Nixon Presidential Records, and they are currently preserved at a facility in College Park, Maryland. In California a Nixon Presidential Library was created as a private institution, holding only private papers (Bennett 2003, 25). The facility, which is located in Nixon's childhood hometown of Yorba Linda, contains a museum and Nixon's burial place. Recently, however, the government has started negotiating to bring the Nixon Library into its presidential library system ("First Steps Taken" 2004); if these negotiations are successful, the existing museum will expand to include an archival storage area staffed by NARA employees. 68 |
