The past informs and shapes our future on a daily basis. From President Washington to current President Biden, each president has or will have a presidential collection from their time in office in the Public Papers of the Presidents. Twenty-three early presidential collections, after a "more than two decade-long initiative," have finished being digitized for the public by the Library of Congress; they include the presidencies of George Washington, Grover Cleveland, and Calvin Coolidge. They join more recent collections (1929-2014) on govinfo.gov, including those of Barack Obama and George Bush.
What are the Public Papers of the President?
The Papers are a collection of papers, speeches, and remarks given by a president during their administration. This includes photographs, executive orders, presidential schedules, bill signings, and even meetings with world leaders. The Papers are in book form and have online versions as well. They started being published in 1957 by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration due to a recommendation from the National Historical Publications Commission (NHPC). Before this there was not a unified and prepared way to access these Papers in a way that is useful to everybody. The NHPC is part of the National Archives, who keeps and stores important documentation like the Declaration of Independence.
Public Papers of President Harry S. Truman in book formWhy should I care about the Papers?
The Papers are useful to students, teachers, lawyers, business owners, and more. If somebody is in a history class and is writing a research paper about President John F. Kennedy, the Papers include relevant and scholarly information. If a researcher needs executive order that was passed, the Papers hold that order so that it is available to view. They include information as to why a president choose a specific foreign policy, why they held specific beliefs, and background on specific bills that were passed into law. There's a wide array of reasons for why the Public Papers of the President are needed.
Where can I find the Papers?
The Papers are available in multiple ways. If an online version is best for someone, some collections can be found on govinfo.gov. Govinfo also holds background information on how the Papers were started. They are organized in a simple easy manner by being divided by president, year, and every 6 months. Govinfo holds the following presidents: - Herbet Hoover
- Harry S. Truman
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- John F. Kennedy
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Richard M. Nixon
- Gerald R. Ford Jr.
- James E. Carter Jr.
- Ronald W. Reagan
- George H. W. Bush
- William J. Clinton
- George W. Bush
- Barack H. Obama
The Library of Congress' newly digitized early presidential collections, which are available online for the first time, are available here. The Library of Congress has the following: - George Washington
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- Andrew Jackson
- Martin Van Buren
- William Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- James K. Polk
- Zachary Taylor
- Franklin Pierce
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Johnson
- Ulysses S. Grant
- James A. Garfield
- Chester A. Arthur
- Grover Cleveland
- Benjamin Harrison
- William McKinley
- Theodore Roosevelt
- William Howard Taft
- Woodrow Wilson
- Calvin Coolidge
The American Presidency Project, launched in 1999, is a non-partisan source of presidential public documents. It holds documents from Biden's presidency down to Warren G. Harding and even George Washington. If a physical form is better, these are available through a library in the Federal Depository Program. At the Edmon Low Library, physical formats are available from George Washington's presidency to 2014 on the 5th floor. They can also be tracked down online on the library's website.
More Resources
The APP is a source from the University of California, Santa Barbara that holds "139,999" presidential and non-presidential records. It's a free online searchable database full of information.
For more details on the process of the new collections, the Library of Congress offers information on the history of these Papers and why they were digitized.
The Office of the Federal Register offers access to the text of laws, regulations, presidential documents, and the Papers.
The Library of Congress offers a 'Finding Government Documents' guide that contains links to databases and other free resources for locating the Papers.
Filled with information about the origins of the Papers and ways to access them, the Federal Depository Library Program provides a video with all of these resources.
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