THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES IN WASHINGTON, D.C. - A NATIONAL TREASURE©

While serving in office from 1933-1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, often referred to as "FDR", inventoried the vast quantities of papers and other materials he and his staff had accumulated. Up to that time, many Presidential papers and records had either been lost, destroyed, sold for profit, or ruined by poor storage conditions.

President Roosevelt sought a viable solution.  Advised by a number of noted historians and scholars, he established a public repository to preserve the evidence of the Presidency for future generations.

In Roosevelt’s own words: “To bring together the records of the past and to house them in a building where they will be preserved for the use of men and women of 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 to learn from the past so that they can gain judgment in creating their own future”.

Prior to the establishing of the National Archives, records created by the Federal Government lacked a stable and secure environment and were not easily accessible to the public. In 1926, during the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge, the US Congress passed the Public Building Act, providing for the construction of several government buildings including "a National Archives".

Architect John Russell Pope was selected to design the building, and ground was broken on September 5, 1931, during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover. On February 20, 1933, President Herbert Hoover laid the building’s cornerstone.

In 1934, after Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected President, the US Congress voted to establish the National Archives to preserve and care for the records of the U.S. Government.   Prior to that time, Federal records were kept in various basements, attics, abandoned buildings, and other storage places with little security or concern for storage conditions.  On June 19, 1934, with the building’s construction well under way, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation creating the National Archives and authorizing it to collect, care for, and make available Federal Government records. 

President Roosevelt appointed Robert D.W. Connor as the first Archivist of the United States, and 80 staff members moved into the nearly-completed building in the Fall  of 1935, ready for the daunting task of surveying and restoring historical Federal records. 

The agency’s first order of business was locating records.  Archives staff surveyed records located in the Washington, D.C. area, while the Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers surveyed Federal records nationwide.   The following year, in 1936, the first batch of Federal records were transferred to the new National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

Staff found records in basements, attics, carriage houses, abandoned buildings, and alcoves.  Many  records had suffered from neglect, infestations, water damage, and even theft.  Records transferred to the National Archives initially went to the Document Conservation Lab to be fumigated.  Thereafter, they were cleaned with specially designed air guns.

The sheer volume of Federal records being located was massive.  Almost as soon as the National Archives building had opened, it required renovation to make room for the influx of records. The inner courtyard was altered and filled with stacks -- doubling the records storage space.

The architect Pope had specifically designed the National Archives’ 75-foot-high “Exhibition Hall” to display the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The Hall included large murals by artist Barry Faulkner depicting the creations of these documents, and a “shrine” designed to hold the original documents. Despite this, however, the Charter documents remained located at the Library of Congress for almost 20 more years.

Finally, in April of 1952, the US Congress ordered that the originals of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution be moved to the National Archives.

These "Charter Documents" were transferred in a solemn public ceremony, pictured here, on December 13, 1952, and unveiled to the public on Bill of Rights Day, December 15, 1952.

Falling under the umbrella of the National Archives are most of the Presidential Libraries, with the exception of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, which is run by the State of Illinois.  

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the very first Presidential Library, to be built with private funds, containing all the records of his administration, and to be run by the National Archives.  Congress approved FDR’s plan, and his Library opened during his Presidency in 1941 in Hyde Park, NY.

All of FDR’s Presidential successors, as well as his immediate predecessor, Herbert Hoover, have perpetuated this tradition.   Because the original legislation approved by Congress had pertained only to FDR, Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act in 1955, paving the way for Presidential libraries, papers, and memorabilia to be allowed to be transferred to the National Archives.

President Harry S. Truman
at Truman Presidential Library
Independence, Missouri

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Presidential Library
Abilene, Kansas

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library
Austin, Texas

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Simi Valley, California

Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
West Branch, Iowa

After Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974,  the US Congress passed legislation seizing Nixon’s materials and mandating that the National Archives process them for public access.

Congress later passed the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which designated Presidential papers as "government property that must be transferred to the National Archives at the end of an administration".  Ronald Reagan was the first President required to comply with the Act.

Most recently, President Barack Obama created a new model for his library whereby NARA will not administer a Museum nor a traditional Presidential Library, but will instead focus on preserving and making accessible Obama’s Presidential records digitally.

Over the years, the National Archives gained new responsibilities relevant to current as well as historical Federal records, leading to its name eventually being changed to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

From one building on Pennsylvania Avenue back in 1935, the National Archives now oversees more than 40 facilities nationwide. 

Today, the mission of the National Archives is to provide public access to Federal Government records in its custody and control.  In the furtherance of this mission, the Archives state: “Public access to government records strengthens democracy by allowing Americans to claim their rights of citizenship, hold their government accountable, and understand their history so they can participate more effectively in their government”.

NOTE:  Presidential Libraries are the focus of two of our "Around the USA" custom-created escorted group heritage tours.  For more information about, and to book, either or both of these interesting, educational and fun tours, link to our Website at:  Presidential Libraries in the Lone Star State of Texas©  and to  Presidential Libraries and Fall Foliage of the Midwest©.

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(Primary Research Source:  The National Archives and Records Administration)

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