Presidential Materials

A comprehensive collection of data and primary source documents related to the presidents and their elections, including signing statements, addresses, convention speeches, and much more. From the University of California Santa Barbara.

Essays on the presidents and their administrations. From The Miller Center at the University of Virginia. See also their Multimedia Archive for documents, speeches, recordings and oral histories.

This library includes such titles as Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Public Papers of the Presidents, CFR Title 3 (Presidents), Daily and Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and other documents related to U.S. Presidents.

1789-1897 [ending date different for different editions]
James D. Richardson compiled this 10 volume set of presidential messages. While not nearly as complete as the modern Public Papers and Weekly Compilations it is one of the only sources for early presidential messages.

1965 - 2006 - available in print at UVA Library (Post 2006 available online)
Includes all official speeches and messages of the President. Indexes include subject, name, and document categories list (e.g., addresses, executive orders, proclamations, news conferences, etc.) Indexes are cumulative.

Weekly Compilation, back to 1993.

In 13 volumes. While not nearly as complete as the modern Public Papers and Weekly Comp it is one of the only sources for early presidential messages.

1929-1933, 1945-2010. Roosevelt listed separately.
The Weekly Compilation is cumulated into the Public Papers of the Presidents. However, there are sometimes materials in the Weekly Compilation which do not appear in the Public Papers. There is a cumulative index to each president's papers. Roosevelt listed separately.

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, 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.

The LC American Memory project has many presidential papers available, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. These vary considerably in scope and coverage.

From the American Presidency Project from the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Public Papers of the Presidents contain most of the President's public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks.

The above VIRGO search should find all of the Presidential Papers sets that UVA owns in microform.

These are usually related to national security and may not be easily available. From George Washington University, NSA Archive. See useful guide to this sort of material from Library of Congress, Presidential Directives & Where to Find Them .

Current issues of the CFR from GPO Access. Title 3 of the CFR contains presidential executive orders and proclamations.

From National Archives/Federal Register. Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders is available electronically from April 13, 1945 - January 20, 1989.

Truman-Obama. From the Federation of American Scientists.

An excellent resource for Presidential materials. Texts and audio files of presidential speeches from Lincoln to Clinton may be found there. See also their Multimedia Archive for recordings, oral histories and other documents.