The Move!

Reference Services on the Nixon Presidential Materials Have Been Suspended

In spring 2010 the Nixon Library will move presidential documents and audio-visual materials from its stack areas in the National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland to the Library campus in Yorba Linda, California.

On-site reference services on the Nixon Presidential textual and audio-visual collection in College Park, Maryland, are suspended as of Friday, February 26, 2010 to prepare the materials for delivery to California.

On-site reference on Nixon presidential documents will begin in Yorba Linda, California, in late June or early July 2010. The precise date of opening, which will depend on the arrival dates of the textual shipments, will be publicized as soon as possible in early 2010.

Between January 15, 2010 and April 2, 2010 the research room in Yorba Linda, California, will be open by APPOINTMENT ONLY. If you would like to schedule an appointment to visit our research room to conduct research during this time frame, please contact Supervisory Archivist Gregory Cumming at gregory.cumming@nara.gov or 714-983-9131.

As of April 5, 2010, the research room in Yorba Linda will be closed until the presidential collection reopens at the facility in June/July 2010. Email, telephone and mail assistance for researchers interested in the records currently in Yorba Linda will continue on a limited basis from April until June/July.

As of June 2010, the Library campus in Yorba Linda will have copies of all publicly-released White House tapes. Eventually all opened tapes will be available online at www.nixonlibrary.gov. The research room at the National Archives in College Park will retain a reference copy of the tapes.

January 11, 2010
Materials Opening

The Nixon Presidential Library opened approximately 280,000 pages of textual materials. This opening included:

• 5,500 pages declassified, in whole or in part, as the result of mandatory review requests from individual researchers. These documents essentially cover national security matters.
• Approximately 20,000 pages of formerly restricted materials from the White House Special Files and Staff Member and Office files. These newly-opened documents comprise several memoranda by President Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Patrick J. Buchanan and H. R. “Bob” Haldeman on policy, campaign tactics, politics and political appointments.
• Approximately 40,000 pages from the Health, Education and Welfare and White House files of Frederic V. Malek.
• Approximately 75,000 pages from Mr. Malek’s files from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, where he served as Deputy Campaign Manager in 1972. The Nixon Library received the CRP files as part of a large 2007 deed of gift of political and campaign materials from the Nixon Foundation.
• A small collection of Alexander M. Haig, Jr.’s Staff Member and Office Files.
• View representative documents from the textual collections.

Besides textual materials, the opening included significant audio-visual materials:

• Approximately 12 hours (18 separate recordings) of previously restricted White House Communications Agency sound recordings. The newly opened recordings include future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s “farewell speech” to his White House colleagues in December 1970; a briefing by White House domestic policy adviser John D. Ehrlichman for a group of high school students visiting from Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington in the wake of the 1970 Kent State tragedy; a July 1969 meeting with the bipartisan congressional leadership and former US treasury secretaries on the surtax, which includes a briefing by President Nixon on his upcoming trip to Asia and Europe; and various briefings for US businessmen and community leaders by the President, Henry A. Kissinger and Herbert Stein on politics, foreign and domestic policy.
• Thanks to the generosity of Dale Adler, Oliver F. Atkins’ daughter, this release also includes the donated materials of chief White House photographer Oliver “Ollie” F. Atkins.  Comprising over 7,000 photographic negatives, transparencies, prints, contact sheets and related publications, this collection spans Atkins’ career from the early 1940's through the 1970's.
• View select photos as a slideshow.
• The opening also includes the supplemental release of Oval Office tape 633-6 of December 9, 1971.

The Online Returned  Nixon White House Special Files

• The Returned White House Special Files consist of approximately 25,000 pages designated by NARA in the 1980s, following a judicial decision, as President Richard Nixon’s personal property. Returned to the Nixon estate in the 1990s, these documents were deeded to NARA by the Nixon Foundation and opened to the public in July 2007, and is now being made accessible on the web. View these documents online.

For a complete listing of materials released on January 11, please visit our Current Release page. You may also read the Press Release.