Nixon Presidential Library Opens 280,000 Pages of New Nixon-Era Materials
Media Alert · Monday, January 11, 2010

Washington, DC

WHAT: The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, one of 13 Presidential libraries operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, opened approximately 280,000 pages of textual materials, 12 hours of sound recordings, and 7,000 images from the personal collection of White House photographer Oliver F. Atkins (“Ollie”) at the National Archives College Park, MD, facility and at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA.

WHEN: Monday, January 11, 2010
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (EST) – College Park, MD
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (PST) –Yorba Linda, CA
9:00 a.m. EST (6:00 a.m. PST) – Online: www.nixonlibrary.gov

WHERE: Lecture Rooms A and B, National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
18001 Yorba Linda Blvd.
Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Online at: www.nixonlibrary.gov

Materials Available in College Park, MD:

• The textual release includes 5,500 pages declassified, in whole or in part, as the result of mandatory review requests from individual researchers. These documents essentially cover national security matters. Topics include the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, President Nixon’s visit to Europe in 1969 (including his meetings with French President Charles de Gaulle), US-West German discussions on the future of a divided Berlin, the Jordanian Crisis of 1970, the Oil Embargo of 1973, and U.S. relations with Brazil, Chile Egypt, India, Spain and the United Kingdom and the former USSR;
   
• Approximately 20,000 pages of formerly restricted materials from the White House Special Files and Staff Member and Office files. These documents comprise several memoranda by President Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Patrick J. Buchanan and H. R. “Bob” Haldeman on policy, campaign tactics, political matters and political appointments; Topics include liberalism and conservatism in the Nixon White House, Public Broadcasting, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Hoffa, Dan Rather, Katherine Graham, Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the political investigation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Busing, the Federal Reserve, and the appointment of a new Vice President in 1973. This release also includes handwritten notes made by White House staff members in 1971-72 that provide additional details on the attempted politicization of the Internal Revenue Service, the selling of ambassadorships, the covert surveillance of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy and the creation of domestic political espionage (i.e., Operation Sandwedge) and “dirty tricks” capabilities ahead of the 1972 campaign;
   
• White House files on the National Capital Housing Authority, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the National Commission on the Cause & Prevention of Violence, as well as the materials of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health;
   
• Approximately 12 hours of previously restricted audio recordings of toasts, greetings and briefings recorded by the White House Communications Agency. Including, future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s “farewell speech” to his White House colleagues in December 1970, and a briefing by White House domestic policy adviser John D. Ehrlichman for a group of high school students visiting from Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA, in the wake of the 1970 Kent State tragedy;
   
• Donated photographic materials of chief White House photographer Oliver F. Atkins. Comprising over 7,000 photographic negatives, transparencies, prints, contact sheets and related publications, this collection spans the important career of Mr. Atkins from the early 1940's through the 1970's. This is a major addition to the Nixon Library’s audio-visual collection. 5,400 of the image negatives are available on contact sheets for research, but 1,800 do not have contact sheets, but finding aids can be used.
  
  As a photographer for the American Red Cross Service in World War II, Mr. Atkins documented the lives of refugees, prisoners of war and combatants in war-torn North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany. After the war, when Atkins became The Saturday Evening Post’s Washington correspondent, he focused on the Nation’s capital. The collection captures the two decades Atkins spent photographing the top political and military stars of his day (including Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, Vice Presidents Barkley and Nixon and General George C. Marshall), as well as the special assignments he received from The Saturday Evening Post. The collection also includes photographs of the tough neighborhoods where the much less famous lived in early postwar Washington, DC. Mr. Atkins, who was the chief photographer for the 1968 Nixon-Agnew campaign, became President Nixon's chief White House photographer after the 1969 Inauguration. Shortly after President Nixon’s resignation, he became a vice president with Curtis Publishing, which published The Saturday Evening Post. Mr. Atkins died in 1977.

Materials Available in Yorba Linda, CA:

• Approximately 40,000 pages of domestic policy materials from the Health, Education and Welfare and White House files of Frederic V. Malek. This important collection includes materials on Mr. Malek’s role in systematizing the staffing of the entire federal government; on the Nixon administration’s commitment to environmental protection and welfare reform; as well as documents that further detail religious discrimination and the political investigation of the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1971;
   
• Approximately 75,000 pages from Mr. Malek’s files from the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), where he served as Deputy Campaign Manager in 1972. The Nixon Library received the CRP files as part of a large 2007 deed of gift of political and campaign materials from the Nixon Foundation;
   
• A small collection of Alexander M. Haig, Jr.’s staff member and office files.

Selected documents and photographs are available online at www.nixonlibrary.gov.

Additionally, the Nixon Library has digitized and uploaded the entire “Returned White House Special Files” collection (approximately 25,000 pages). Returned to the Nixon estate in the 1990s, these documents were deeded to the National Archives by the Nixon Foundation and opened to the public in July 2007. As of today, they are accessible via the web.

Other Information

All researchers, including the media, must have a valid National Archives researcher card prior to gaining access to the records. Researcher cards may be obtained at either facility with a photo ID. Clean research room rules apply and no recording or transmission devices of any kind will be allowed in the research room. Lap top computers and scanners are permitted.

The National Archives facility in College Park does not currently provide wireless access to the Internet. A limited number of computers with Internet access will be available on a first come first served basis.

Due to parking limitations at College Park during openings, researchers are encouraged to use the National Archives shuttle bus service between the Washington, DC and College Park, MD buildings. The shuttle buses depart from both buildings between 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. on the hour.

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For research information, contact the Nixon Library staff at:

College Park, Maryland: 301-837-3290
Yorba Linda, California: 714-983-9120

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