Prologue is a scholarly journal published quarterly by the National Archives and Records Administration. Its primary purpose is to bring to public attention the resources and programs of the National Archives, the regional archives, and the presidential libraries. Accordingly, Prologue in the main publishes material based, in whole or in part, on the holdings and programs of these institutions. In keeping with the nonpartisan character of the National Archives, Prologue will not accept articles that are politically partisan or that deal with contemporary political issues.

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ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES
Don W. Wilson

ASSISTANT ARCHIVIST, PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Linda N. Brown

DIRECTOR, PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
Charles W. Bender

ACTING EDITOR
Mary C. Ryan
EDITORIAL STAFF
Sandra M. Tilley

Sherry King-Anderson

ART DIRECTOR

Serene Feldman Werblood PRODUCTION EDITOR

Richard B. Smith

SUBSCRIPTIONS COORDINATOR
Olivia Hylton
DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Public Affairs Staff

P

residential libraries, the subject of this issue of Prologue, are a uniquely American institution. Only in the United States do we gather together in one place the bulk of the records documenting the highest office in the land, the office of the President. Despite some feeble efforts to imitate these "Presidential archival depositories" (as the law

life and achievements of our nineteenth President.

At the end of the nineteenth century, when the newly created Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress began to solicit presidential papers, the situation improved. In 1917 Theodore Roosevelt began to deposit papers in the Library of Congress. William Howard Taft fol

calls them), no other nation has succeeded in creating a similar head-of-state archival-museum network. Undoubtedly there are a number of reasons for this, but I believe most of the explanations rest in the history of the American people and their institutions.

The article by Frank Freidel entitled "From Roosevelt to Reagan" explains a great deal about the growth of the presidential library system. Professor Freidel was a pioneer, a member of that small and exclusive group that began working in the Roosevelt archives in the middle and late 1940s. No one is better qualified to write about the beginnings of presidential libraries. By way of prologue, a brief account of the odyssey of presidential papers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ought to make clear the significance of what Franklin Roosevelt wrought fifty years ago.

Our first President characterized his presidential papers as "a species of public property sacred in my hands." When George Washington left office, he took his papers with him to Mount Vernon, sacred in his hands and away from the prying eyes of his political enemies. Every President after Washington followed suit and removed his papers upon leaving office.

The preservation of these papers, particularly in the nineteenth century, was largely a matter of luck. Presidential papers were systematically purged by editors, mutilated by autograph collectors and souvenir hunters, wasted by widows, burned in barns and barrels, and carted off by marauding troops. The single notable exception to this dismal record was the establishment of the Rutherford B. Hayes Library in Ohio-a family museum and archives that celebrates the

lowed his lead, and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, fifteen years after the death of her husband, did likewise, but placed severe restrictions on access to the papers. Calvin Coolidge also deposited papers in the Library of Congress, but it was openly acknowledged that many presidential documents were destroyed prior to deposit there.

Just when it appeared that the Library of Congress would become the official repository of presidential papers, Franklin Roosevelt, in 1939, announced his plan to build a presidential library on part of the family estate in Hyde Park, New York. Congress authorized the Archivist of the United States to accept presidential papers and other historical materials from Roosevelt and others and to administer them; friends provided the money necessary to construct a building, and by the end of World War II the library, a part of the National Archives, was a functioning center for research and education. In 1955 general legislation-the Presidential Libraries Actwas passed to allow other Presidents to follow Roosevelt's example. Since then, all former Presidents since Herbert Hoover have done so, or announced their intention to do so.

To my mind, presidential libraries have made and are making two significant contributions. One is the timely availability of a President's papers. Most often, archival research is under way within five years of a President leaving office, a circumstance unequalled anywhere else in the world. The second contribution deals with public awareness. Presidential museums have succeeded admirably, I believe, in raising public consciousness of the burdens of presidential decisions, as Frank Mackaman explains in his article: "Human Drama: Presidential Museums Tell

the Story." And if you ever wondered where most of the material for presidential museums comes from, the picture portfolio on gifts to the Presidents will clear up that question.

The presidential library idea and practice is now fifty years old-old enough to have developed its own characteristics. It seems clear, for example, that libraries tend to fall into three stages in their life cycle: Stage one is the museum development and archival processing period; stage two is the professional use or research period; stage three is the nostalgia period, which heralds a reexamination and recollection of the man and his times. The stimulation and tension typical of the first stage is revealed in Donald B. Schewe's "Establishing a Presidential Library: The Jimmy Carter Experience." Donald Schewe shares with us those exciting days when a library passes from a concept to a functioning archive and museum.

Richard Norton Smith, of the Herbert Hoover Library, offers a provocative contrast, "A Presidential Revival: How the Hoover Library Overcame a Mid-Life Crisis," which exemplifies the third stage of library development and tells how a new director sets out to reassess a President and reshape a library and its operation.

In the past fifty years, Roosevelt's decision has had far-reaching consequences. The Roosevelt Library has become the cornerstone of a whole system. Today there are eight presidential libraries with a ninth, the Reagan Library, starting up in California. All are part of the National Archives and Records Administration, and all share the same dedication and obligation to preserve and make available the records and materials in their custody.

Don W. Wilson is Archivist of the United States.