Nate Jones Via Redacted – This a version of this article originally appeared in The Federalist, Newsletter of the Society for History in the Federal Government

“The Presidential Records Act of 1978 (PRA) established that the papers of U.S. Presidents legally belong to the American people. According to the law, the Archivist of the United States assumes responsibility for the custody, control, preservation, and accessibility of Presidential records after the President leaves office. Moreover, the Archivist of the United States has the “affirmative duty to make such records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible.” This is the first contribution of a regular Federalist column discussing the activities and new document releases of the Presidential Libraries. Presidential records are made available to the public through each administration’s Presidential Library, which are located across the United States. The libraries themselves are often federal and private amalgamations. For example, while all of the records at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library’s recreation of the Oval Office—and its other museum exhibits— were financed by private funding through the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.”