Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Resource Guide

American Memory Historical Collections

After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor

This collection presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, including a series of interviews called "Dear Mr. President," which were recorded in January and February 1942.

American English Dialect Recordings: The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection

This collection contains 118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects. The recordings include speech samples, linguistic interviews, oral histories, conversations, and excerpts from public speeches. It includes an audio recording and a transcript of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Joint Address to Congress asking that a state of war be declared between the United States and Japan (December 8, 1941).

America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945

The images in the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection are among the most famous documentary photographs ever produced. The images show Americans at home, at work, and at play, with an emphasis on rural and small-town life and the adverse effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. In addition, this collection contains many photographs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. Search this collection using the phrase President Roosevelt or Mrs. Roosevelt to locate these images.

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election

The Nation's Forum Collection consists of fifty-nine sound recordings of speeches by American leaders from 1918-20. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding World War I and the subsequent presidential election of 1920. This collection contains a speech delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1920 concerning World War I and its aftermath.

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

These life histories were compiled and transcribed by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936-40. Search this collection to find life histories that reference Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. Search the bibliographic records and the full-text option to find items related to Franklin Delano Roosevelt such as his 1940 State of the Union address and his last message to the American people in 1945.

Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States, including Roosevelt's home located in Hyde Park, New York.

By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present

This collection presents portraits of U.S. presidents and first ladies, including five photographs of Roosevelt and one photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Freedom’s Fortress: The Library of Congress, 1939-1953

This collection presents a window into the history of the Library of Congress from 1939 to 1953. During this time the Library underwent a myriad of changes that established the institution as one of America's foremost citadels of intellectual freedom. Included in this collection are fourteen letters to, from, or referring to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library

Over 30,000 photographs, drawn from the holdings of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library, illuminate many aspects of the history of the American West. This collection contains twenty photographs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations

This collection contains approximately 400 items relating to presidential inaugurations, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inauguration in 1933, second inauguration in 1937, third inauguration in 1941, and fourth inauguration in 1945.

"Suffering Under a Great Injustice": Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar

In 1943, Ansel Adams, America's best-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II. In February 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the building of “relocation camps” for Japanese Americans living along the Pacific Coast.

Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years

In honor of the Manuscript Division's centennial, its staff selected approximately 90 representative documents spanning from the fifteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. This collection contains four items related to Roosevelt, including his letter to J. Robert Oppenheimer thanking the physicist and his colleagues for their ongoing secret atomic research. Also included is a letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Walter White, the NAACP executive secretary, detailing the First Lady's lobbying efforts for federal action against lynchings.