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Posted January 28, 2005.

Nixon Library Prepares for Transfer of Presidential Archives

Thirty years after Congress passed a law requiring them to remain in the National Archives and Records Administration for safekeeping, the papers and tape recordings of the 37th president will be transferred this fall to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California. The library, a privately operated foundation that opened in 1990 and only houses archives before and after the Nixon presidency, is planning a new wing to store the new records. Officials hope to have it ready this fall to begin the transfer of 40 million pages of records, 30,000 gifts, and 3,700 hours of tape, the Associated Press reported January 23.

The Nixon Library will be operated by NARA in the same way as the 11 other presidential libraries. The change in status is due to a provision, inserted into a 2004 appropriations bill, removing a 1974 requirement that the records remain in the Washington, D.C., area. The library expects the transfer to be completed by 2009, by which time NARA will have finished transcribing and making public the entire 2,800 hours of Nixon’s taped conversations.

Nixon and his heirs had pursued legal challenges since 1980 to obtain control of the records, culminating in an $18 million settlement in 2000 that compensated his estate for the material.

“To have all the materials united under one roof is something to which I’m looking forward,” said daughter Tricia Nixon Cox. “I think that would have meant a lot to him, too,” she added, referring to her father. The library includes a replica of the farm house where Nixon was born, a detailed miniature White House, and a replica of the East Room that opened in 2004.

Posted January 28, 2005.