From a family home to a 49-room mansion - America’s presidential libraries

A network of 13 bibliothecas dotted around the US sums up the lives and achievements of former leaders

Visitors to the Richard Nixon Library in California in 1996 get a look at the limousine built in 1967 for president Lyndon B Johnson. AP

At first sight, the modest family house in Yorba Linda, California, and the palatial 49-room mansion 4,500km away in the town of Hyde Park, New York, have nothing in common.

However, both were childhood homes of American presidents, and both are open to the public.

They form part of a network of 13 libraries and museums dotted around the country. The California house — in reality little more than a glorified cottage — is where Richard Nixon grew up.

The somewhat grander edifice nestling in New York state's Hudson Valley was home to Franklin D Roosevelt. It was FDR who was responsible for initiating the network of presidential libraries in the late 1930s, when he wondered what would happen to his vast trove of presidential papers.

In December 1938, he announced plans for a presidential library on his Hyde Park estate. The following year, the US Congress passed a resolution accepting the library and agreeing it would be operated by the National Archives, establishing a template that has been followed ever since, with private funds being used to build the libraries and museums.

America's presidential libraries house documents that will be pored over by historians for generations to come. This perhaps explains the anger that erupted when it was discovered that Donald Trump had walked off with 15 boxes of classified material, including letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, when he decamped to Mar-a-Lago.

Documents seized during the August search of former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. AP

It was material that perhaps one day could have been put on show at a Trump museum and library.

In January 2021, the Washington Post reported rumours that Mr Trump was planning for a library in Florida but there has been some scepticism whether this will happen, given that he and and his supporters would have to finance the project which, at least according to one estimate, could cost as much as $2 billion.

The libraries that are up and running provide a fascinating window into the occupants of the White House, encompassing everything from major historic decisions to the minutiae of their daily lives.

At Hyde Park, among the most striking artefacts are the steel-and-leather leg braces FDR had to wear after being struck with polio when he was 39.

Franklin D Roosevelt's office in his presidential library in Hyde Park, New York. Photo: David Millward

He was unable to stand without the braces, which weighed 4.5kg. In common with other museums, there is an array of interactive galleries telling the story of his rise to the presidency and the challenges he faced, from rescuing the economy during the Depression to confronting the Axis powers after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

The Works Progress Administration, established in 1935 to create jobs for millions of Americans who were thrown out of work as the economy crashed, has contributed some remarkable items, from wooden statues of FDR and his wife Eleanor to a carving of the president's head on a caricature pipe.

FDR's presidential library in Hyde Park, New York state. Photo: David Millward

Then there is FDR's specially adapted 1936 Ford Phaeton, which he drove using hand controls. While history has been kind to FDR, the same cannot be said of Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace rather than face a trial in Senate over the Watergate scandal.

The museum at Yorba Linda is a "warts and all" portrait of a president whose downfall obscured some serious legislative achievements, from the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency to ending the military draft and pushing through the desegregation of schools in the South.

Nixon's parents ran a citrus ranch and the house, in which the family lived until 1922, is on its original site. It was used for decades as a home for the caretaker of the local elementary school.

Designated a historic building in 1990, it is largely unchanged from the days when the Nixon family lived there. There is furniture that belonged to the Nixons, along with other contemporary pieces which were brought in.

Stepping into the parlour takes visitors back to the California of a century ago, with lace curtains on the windows and embroidered runners covering the chests of drawers. In sharp contrast to the homestead, the exhibits are cutting-edge examples of interactive technology.

Nixon's Oval Office is lovingly recreated, complete with the blue-and-gold carpet designed by Pat Nixon. It is even possible to sit at the president's desk.

Ronald Reagan's Air Force One and his presidential vehicles at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

To the credit of the curators, Watergate is not avoided. A gallery shows visitors the events that unfolded at Washington's Watergate hotel complex, where Nixon authorised a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters aimed at stealing documents.

The Ronald Reagan library, about 130km away, is more of an adulatory tribute to the president.

Again, the Oval Office has been recreated. The changes are marked, including rather more subdued beige decor. Notable items include Reagan's cowboy boots, complete with a presidential seal, and Air Force One, a Boeing 707 that flew him more than a million kilometres.

Reagan's plea for the aircraft for his museum was rather more successful than the Lyndon Johnson museum's plea for its predecessor, which was unceremoniously turned down by the US Air Force.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. AP

This was the plane on which LBJ was sworn in as president after the assassination of John F Kennedy. The Kennedy museum in Boston is packed with memorabilia from his well-heeled youth and his presidency.

JFK's administration came to be known as Camelot, a name given by former first lady Jaqueline Kennedy to sum up the optimism of the time

Exhibits include a room dedicated to Ms Kennedy's wardrobe and another to how she restored the White House. Footage plays of the famous guided tour of the White House that was broadcast by CBS and seen by 50 million Americans.

Thanks to FDR, it is now possible to step into the shoes of presidents from Herbert Hoover, who fell into line with his successor in creating a museum, to George HW Bush.

Flowers at the base of the eponymous statue outside the George HW Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. EPA

There is one other museum of note, albeit independent of the presidential library network, which is dedicated to Rutherford B Hayes, who served one term in the White House, from 1877-1881.

His son, Colonel Webb Hayes, handed over the family mansion in Fremont, Ohio to the state and the Hayes memorial opened in 1916. Otherwise, presidential papers have had something of a chequered life.

Documents belonging to Zachary Taylor, America's 12th president, went up in smoke when his house was occupied by Union soldiers.

Chester Arthur, president from 1881-1885, meanwhile, burnt his papers the day before he died.

Plans are in hand for a Barack Obama library, which is expected to be located in the south side of Chicago. Work has already started on the project with the building taking shape.