Presidential Libraries Welcome the Public and Focus on
FDR's new Henry A. Wallace Center

Library directors with the National Archives and Records Administration gathered at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library- the nation’s first presidential library- for the first time in thirty years at a three-day summit in August hosted by FDR Library Director Cynthia Koch. A public forum at the new Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center, hosted by Richard Claypool, assistant Archivist of the US presidential library system, featured directors of all 12 libraries including the about to be opened Bill Clinton Library in Arkansas, and the still private Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. In the audience and found speaking with library directors including FDR’s Cynthia Koch afterwards were John Ansley, Special Collections and Archives at Marist College Library, and SENYLRC staff members Judy Fischetti and Patricia Carroll. From the West Branch, Iowa (Herbert Hoover Library) with its HooverFest in August and Laura Ingalls Wilder Celebrations every September, to Boston’s JFK Library with 300 different collections including Ernest Hemingway’s Papers, the libraries welcome the public and create educational programs and exhibits for the communities in which they are located. The presidential libraries conference also involved the education program staffs as educational programs within the libraries and through web sites for the world, are key to the libraries’ missions. Michael Devine, Director of The Truman Library and Museum in Missouri, cited 200,200 unique visits per month to its website which includes education and kids pages. The presidential libraries are, in fact, wonderful resources for research and education, in their communities and on the web with primary source worksheets, elementary and secondary school lesson plans, and a wealth of digital documents, oral histories, and multimedia exhibits.

The Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center. FDR Presidential Library and Museum photo.	The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. FDR Presidential Library and Museum photo.

The Wallace Center, a striking blend of new technology and Hudson Valley stonework, is worth a special trip to Hyde Park to view this impressive new facility which opened last November as an addition to the FDR Presidential Library and the Home of the FDR National Historic Site. Designed to reflect the importance FDR placed on structures that grace the natural environment and pay homage to the indigenous materials, project architect Frances Halsband (and longtime Hudson Valley resident) described FDR’s design for the first presidential library as “ an inspiration and a starting point for our design. The Visitor Center is a new interpretation of the Dutch architecture of the Hudson Valley, transformed for our century, our needs, our sensibilities.” The design incorporates fieldstone walls, tall gabled roofs and sheltering porches into a grouping of public pavilions which frame a courtyard graced by a bronze life-sized sculpture of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Based on a summer 1932 photograph of the couple relaxing at their estate, the Roosevelts now, as then, welcome visitors to come to know Hyde Park and to feel at home. Cast in Beacon at the Tallix Foundry, there is plenty of room for modern visitors to pose for their own photographs with Franklin and Eleanor—even to sit on the Adirondack style bench alongside FDR to show friends and family back home that they were indeed welcome and important guests during their stay in Hyde Park.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyde Park, NY 1933. FDR Presidential Library and Museum photo.	The Oval Office Desk in the Museum at the FDR Library. FDR Presidential Library and Museum photo.

The FDR Library opened a new gallery in the remodeled Roosevelt designed building September 12. Inaugurating the new William J. vanden Heuval Galley is the photographic exhibit “This Great Nation Will Endure”, 175 images of America taken between 1935 and 1942 by the great photographers of the Farm Security Administration. Drawn from the massive collection at the Library of Congress, this is one of the largest and richest exhibitions of FSA photography ever mounted. A soundtrack consisting of FSA audio recordings of folk music sung by migrant workers will fill part of the exhibit space which also includes a specially commissioned short documentary film that explores the work of several of the most prominent FSA photographers.

Free public programs this fall include a special folk music concert featuring music of the 1930s and 1940s which appropriately highlights the Library’s new exhibit on the photography of the Great Depression and the fall campaign season. The October 29, 7PM concert in the Henry A. Wallace Center will include music from the 1948 Wallace presidential campaign as well as music from the migrant worker camps and will be a family affair with Randall Wallace performing music of his grandfather’s campaign and Tao Rodriquez Seeger performing his grandfather Pete Seeger’s compositions. The Farm Security Administration headed by Henry A. Wallace was a unit of the New Deal Department of Agriculture. For additional public programs and further information about the exhibit and the center as well as online features on FDR and Hyde Park, visit www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu.

By Patricia Carroll-Mathes, Hospital Libraries Services Manager

Southeastern News Online is published bi-monthly by SENYLRC staff.