Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library ( Franklin D. Roosevelt Library ) is the first of the US President libraries . It was planned and built between 1939 and 1940 under President Roosevelt's direction .
history
Built on 65,000 m² in Hyde Park , New York , donated by the President and his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt , the library was the result of the President's decision that a separate facility was needed to house the large holdings of historical documents, books and souvenirs which he had amassed in his long life in public service and as a private collector.
prehistory
Before Roosevelt's presidency, the whereabouts of the president's papers were left to chance. While it is a valuable part of America's national heritage, documents from senior officials were their private property and were taken away by them when they left the office. Some of these were sold or destroyed and thus scattered or lost to the nation forever. Others stayed with the families, but were not accessible to researchers for a long time. Some collections found their way into the Library of Congress or private depots.
In establishing his library, Roosevelt created an institution to preserve all of his documents. This affected the papers from all his public offices: Senator of New York State (1910-1913), Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-19), Governor of New York (1929-1932), and President of the United States (1933–45) and its private collections of documents, books, and mementos related to the history of the US Navy and Dutchess County .
Place and building
The library itself is built of Hudson Valley fieldstone in a style reminiscent of the Dutch colonial architecture , which Roosevelt was particularly fond of. A sketch by President Roosevelt dated April 12, 1937 shows the proposed building on ground very close to the land that was ultimately selected and a floor plan roughly similar to that of the main block of the current building. Roosevelt built the library with privately donated fortune for $ 376,000 and then turned it over to the federal government on July 4, 1940 for the National Archives to operate. Through his dispositions, Roosevelt ensured that his documents would become the property of the nation and will be housed in the library on his Hyde Park property, where they will be available to researchers. Robert DW Connor, the then United States archivist, said of the President, "Franklin D. Roosevelt is the nation's answer to historians' prayers."
Mrs. Roosevelt's Archives
During the early planning of the library, the President expressed his hope that Mrs. Roosevelt's documents would eventually find a place in it. In 1942 President Roosevelt made a rough sketch for wings to be added to the north and south sides of the building if more space was needed for additional documents. At the time of her death in 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt's documents numbered a staggering three million pages.
The Presidential Libraries Act
Roosevelt's decrees set a precedent. When Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act 1955, it regulated procedures - presented by President Roosevelt - for privately-built and state-owned libraries to preserve the records of future presidents. Although official presidential documents are now publicly owned under the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and laws limit the size and funding of museums, Roosevelt's original goal of keeping documents in one place and making them available to the nation still meets.
The museum
Roosevelt hoped the library would become a major research center and attract visitors to the museum. The museum section of the building opened on June 30, 1941. However, the beginning of World War II changed Roosevelt's plans and the official opening of the library as a research facility was postponed when the president was elected for the third and then fourth time in 1944. He often visited the library during the war to sort and classify records and mementos. And in his study in the library he gave some of his famous radio speeches and “fireplace chats”.
President Roosevelt last visited Hyde Park in March 1945 and died on April 12 in Warm Springs , Georgia , at the age of 63.
Founder's vision
The Presidential Library reflects the vision of its founder, which he presented when speaking at the library's dedication on June 30, 1941. In order to preserve archival facilities and records, he argued that "a nation must believe in three things: It must believe in its past. It must believe in its future. And above all, it must believe in the ability of its own people to believe in it A "Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above. 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. ") The library that bears his name has continued Roosevelt's message and, in the same spirit, productive research on his Life and stimulated in its time.
literature
- William G. Clotworthy: Homes and Libraries of the Presidents. McDonald & Woodward, Blacksburg, Virginia, 1995. ISBN 0-939923-32-7
- Ronald D. Barley: Rendezvous with America's President. On the way to the places of her life. Primus, Darmstadt 2012. ISBN 978-3-86312-028-3
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 46 '8.2 " N , 73 ° 56' 3.4" W.