Courtesy FDR Presidential Library
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
[ Hyde Park, New York ]
Opened first in 1941, the Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Presidential Library and Museum is America’s first true presidential library and the only one that has been used by a sitting president. The library and museum was designed by FDR himself in the Dutch colonial style on the grounds of the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York. Unbeknownst to the president at the time, it was his simple act of donating his papers to the library that forever established the precedent for public ownership of presidential papers.
“The most important space in the museum is not an exhibit at all,” said Lynn Bassanese, director of the National Archives and Records Administration for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. “The president’s study is the jewel of the building. FDR gave two of his famous fireside chats from this room and used it as an office during his presidency. It was there that he worked on his books and papers and organized his collections, and it remains furnished exactly as it was when Roosevelt last worked in the library in March 1945.”
Other popular artifacts include Roosevelt’s Oval Office desk and his 1936 Ford Phaeton with hand controls that allowed the president to drive without using his legs. On June 30, the National Archives will rededicate the Roosevelt Library on the 72nd anniversary of FDR’s original dedication of the building. At that time, the library will open new state-of-the-art exhibits that tell the story of the Roosevelt presidency beginning in the depths of the Great Depression and continuing through the New Deal years and World War II.
www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu
