First Ladies Library Named
National Historic Site
The National First Ladies Library in Canton, Ohio, was designated January 16 as a National Historic Site, becoming part of the National Park Service with preservation rights and more access to federal funds.
“It will give us permanence and prominence,” library founder and president Mary Regula said in the January 17 Akron Beacon Journal. Regula is the wife of U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Navarre), who worked on legislation for the historical designation that was passed by Congress in October. A congratulatory letter from First Lady Hillary Clinton was read at the designation ceremony that praises the library for “pass[ing] on to future generations both the symbols and the gifts of liberty and creativity that make us who we are.”
Opened in 1998 in the childhood Victorian home of First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley, the library collects materials about the roles and history of U.S. presidents’ wives and directs the annual First Ladies Salute First Women awards. In February construction of the library’s education and research center will start in a historic bank building—part of the White House Millennium Council’s Save America’s Treasures program.
Posted january 22, 2001.
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