The American Presidency Project
An amazing archive-- party platforms beginning in 1840, inaugural addresses since 1789, public papers since 1789, signing statements, State of the Union addresses, Executive Orders, Proclamations, and much more. (Note: Executive Orders from before 1970 that have subsequently been changed (e.g., superseded, amended, etc.) may not appear in their original form.)
New York Times Archive, 1851-2008
Full image of the New York Times.
Washington Post Archive (1877-1996)
Wall Street Journal Archive (1889-1995)
America’s Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922
Full text of many newspapers of this era.
American Broadsides and Ephemera
Digitized images of campaign poster and handbills, signs, poems, etc., 1760-1900.
American Memory
Digitized images and texts from the Library of Congress.
Reports of U.S. presidential commissions and other advisory bodies : a bibliographic listing (online)
Main Ref KF5125.A1 B66 2017 (print)
Federal Staff Directory
Main Ref JK 723 .E9F44
Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch, 1774-1989.
E176 .U575 2003
How to research the presidency
Main Libr JK516 .M37 1996
Main Ref JK516 .M37 1996
The American Presidency: A Bibliography.
Main Ref Z 1249 P7 M357 1987
American Presidents: A Bibliography
Main Ref Z 1249 P7 M36 1987
The Presidency: a Research Guide
Main Ref Z 1249 P7 G63 1985
Budget of the United States Government
The President's budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Also contains outline of actual expenditures for the previous year.
Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders
Govt Ref AE 2.113 1945-1989 (print); Online, 1945-1989
A codification (grouping by subject) and index of executive orders from 1945-1989.
Federal Register
Code of Federal Regulations
The Federal Register reports executive orders and proposed executive agency regulations. The CFR codifies and publishes the final regulations. Title 3 of the CFR is an annual print compilation of Executive Orders.
A compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents (George Washington to Woodrow Wilson)
Main Ref J81 . B96G
The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Main Libr E806 .R749
Public Papers of the Presidents (Herbert Hoover through Obama, 2016-2017, Book II, except FDR. Ceased; use Compilation of Presidential Documents for more recent materials.)
Govt Ref AE 2.114 ; Govt Index AE 2.114 ;
search or browse in govinfo, 1929-1932, 1945-present
Each president's public speeches, proclamations and sometimes executive orders are collected and published together in an annual volume, arranged chronologically. Volumes for some presidents are also available through their libraries: Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush. Note: The current Compilation of Presidential Documents is more up-to-date than Public Papers of the Presidents. In earlier years, the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents included more documents than the PPP.
Compilation of Presidential Documents
search or browse in govinfo, 1993-present
--or in--
Academic Search Complete 1995-
Each week the Government Publishing Office publishes in this database the President's public speeches, press conferences, proclamations, etc. from the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. These are later compiled in the volumes of the Public Papers of the Presidents. Also include Executive Orders. Note: The current Compilation of Presidential Documents is more up-to-date than Public Papers of the Presidents. In earlier years, the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents included more documents than the PPP.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set (online, 1817-1994)
Govt Y 1.1/2: - Y 1.1/8: (print, 1817-present with gaps)
Large series of congressional reports on legislation, treaties, messages from the president. In the 19th century, contains legislative materials plus many executive agency reports, such as reports on expeditions, fisheries, commerce, defense, etc. American State Papers contain similar information for 1789-1837.
# | President | Selected collections of presidential papers, libraries, WH websites, oral histories |
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1 | George Washington 1789-1797 |
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2 | John Adams 1797-1801 |
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3 | Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809 |
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4 | James Madison 1809-1817 |
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5 | James Monroe 1817-1825 |
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6 | John Quincy Adams 1825-1829 |
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7 | Andrew Jackson 1829-1837 |
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8 | Martin Van Buren 1837-1841 |
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9 | William Henry Harrison 1841 |
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10 | John Tyler 1841-1845 |
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11 | James K. Polk 1845-1849 |
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12 | Zachary Taylor 1849-1850 |
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13 | Millard Fillmore 1850-1853 |
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14 | Franklin Pierce 1853-1857 |
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15 | James Buchanan 1857-1861 |
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16 | Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865 |
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17 | Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 |
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18 | Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877 |
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19 | Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-1881 |
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20 | James Garfield 1881-1881 |
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21 | Chester A. Arthur 1881-1885 |
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22 | Grover Cleveland 1885-1889 |
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23 | Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893 |
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24 | Grover Cleveland 1893-1897 |
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25 | William McKinley 1897-1901 |
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26 | Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 |
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27 | William H. Taft 1909-1913 |
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28 | Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 |
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29 | Warren G. Harding 1921-1923 |
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30 | Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 |
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31 | Herbert C. Hoover 1929-1933 |
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32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945 |
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33 | Harry S. Truman 1945-1953 |
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34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961 |
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35 | John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 |
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36 | Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969 |
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37 | Richard M. Nixon 1969-1974 |
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38 | Gerald R. Ford 1974-1977 |
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39 | Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 |
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40 | Ronald W. Reagan 1981-1989 |
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41 | George Herbert Walker Bush 1989-1993 |
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42 | William J. Clinton 1993-2001 |
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43 | George Walker Bush 2001-2009 |
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44 | Barack H. Obama 2009-2017 |
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45 | Donald J. Trump 2017-2021 |
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46 | Joseph R. Biden, Jr. 2021- |
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Presidential Libraries, National Archives and Records Administration For archived Executive Branch department websites, use the Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive. End of Term Web Archive, a collaborative effort to harvest "the Federal Government domains (.gov, .mil, .org, etc.)" at the end of one administration and "to document changes in the federal government websites as agencies transitioned" to the next. Digital Collections on Government, Law & Politics, including some presidential papers, from the Library of Congress. Vice Presidential Records. Information from the National Archives. Presidential Oral Histories, University of Virginia, Miller Center White House Transition Project. About Oral Histories, C-SPAN In Compass, search on: [your topic] AND ("oral histor*" OR archives OR correspondence) |
Please ask about other sources of presidential papers.
"'Mutilated by rats,' burned, trashed: 200 years of presidential papers lost," Ronald G. Shafer, Washington Post, 27 August 2022.