The Franklin D Roosevelt Library and Museum
This site is the official web page of the FDR Library at Hyde Park, New York, providing a comprehensive archive index of the Library’s holdings whilst also containing general tourist information regarding the museum. The site will be of most use to potential visitors to the Library, although a limited number of documents can be viewed on the web. Of primary interest for the researcher will be the exhaustive list of all manuscript collections and oral histories held at the Library. The archive holds all of FDR’s papers, public and private, personal and Presidential, and the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt are also housed here alongside those of many of FDR’s closest advisors. The Sumner Welles papers have their own separate and incredibly detailed index. There is also a complete list of all of the photographic and audio collections at the site. A keyword search facility of all folder and file names gives a good indication of what is held on any given topic, and the detail regarding file and box numbers makes the site essential viewing for any future visitor. Also listed are the locations of other manuscript collections relevant to the FDR years.
There is more to the site than extensive lists of documents, with the highlight being the President’s Safe Files. Although still under construction, there is the facility to view original documents, maps and photographs from some 6,000 pages of the Safe Files from the President’s Secretary’s Files. There is also the ability to view literally thousands of selections from the photographic collections. There are links to the New Deal Network, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and other Presidential Libraries. Also of interest to the researcher will be information about the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI) which offers grants-in-aid to would-be visitors. Those visitors can also find out just about everything they would want to know about the Library, from opening times to the location of the nearest Dairy Queen. Even for those not intending on seeing Hyde Park in person, the site is worth a visit, particularly for the original documents reproduced within.
Andrew Johnstone (University of Birmingham)