Additional Research Resources

There is a wealth of information and resources available on the American Presidency from institutions across the country. View a select list of them below.  

Federal Government Resources

Public Papers of the Presidents

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the National Archives Office of the Federal Register, began in 1957 in response to a recommendation of the National Historical Publications Commission.

Noting the lack of uniform compilations of messages and papers of the Presidents before this time, the Commission recommended the establishment of an official series in which Presidential writings, addresses, and remarks of a public nature could be made available.

Volumes of the Public Papers of the Presidents from 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to 2016 (Barack H. Obama) published by the National Archives are made available as digital formats through GPO digitization efforts. The Public Papers of the President were not published by the National Archives for the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency; these volumes were published by a private printer before the commencement of the official Public Papers series and are not currently available in GovInfo. 

Executive Orders

The President of the United States manages the operations of the Executive branch of Government through Executive Orders. After the President signs an Executive Order, the White House sends it to the National Archives Office of the Federal Register. Executive Orders from 1994 to the present are available from the Federal Register’s website. 

Executive Orders from 1937 to 2017 on the National Archives website.

Compilation of Presidential Documents

The Compilation of Presidential Documents collection consists of the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents which are the official publications of materials released by the White House Press Secretary from 1992 to the present. The Compilation of Presidential Documents is published by the National Archives Office of the Federal Register.

Daily Federal Register

The official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other Presidential documents.

General Resources on the American Presidency

• The American Presidency Project  is a study of the American presidency established in 1999 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The site offers 104,792 documents related to the study of the presidency.
• University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs – The Presidency comprises oral histories of presidential administrations since Jimmy Carter, and transcriptions of recordings made by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Their site includes biographical information about each of the presidents, a speech archive, and classroom resources.
• The Department of State Office of the Historian is staffed by professional historians who are experts in the history of U.S. foreign policy. The Office of the Historian is responsible, under law, for the preparation and publication of the official documentary history of U.S. foreign policy in the Foreign Relations of the United States series. The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The series, which is produced by the Department of State's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 and now comprises more than 450 individual volumes. The volumes published over the last two decades increasingly contain declassified records from all the foreign affairs agencies.
• The National Archives Library Information Center (ALIC) has even more resources on its Presidents page.

Archival Collections from Presidents George Washington to Calvin Coolidge

The National Archives holds the records of the presidential administrations from Herbert Hoover through Donald J. Trump. Use the table below to find the archival collections of presidents prior to President Hoover.

Information about the Vice Presidential Collections can be found on the Locations of Vice Presidential Collections page.