Digitized Historical Documents 

To search the entire FDR Library website for digitized historical content, including but not limited to the collections described on this page, please use the search bar at the top right-hand corner of your screen. Please note that the broader search includes all our website's digital content except for the Photographs and Finding Aids databases, which must be searched separately.

Digitized documents from the President's Secretary's Files SEARCH
         

OR

Browse the contents of the two major digitized collections by following the links below.

President's Secretary's File (PSF)

Most of the documents currently available online come from a collection known as the President's Secretary's File, or PSF. Approximately 13,000 documents from the PSF can be viewed in both original (scanned image) and text (transcribed) format. The collection is arranged alphabetically by correspondent or subject, and is divided into five series outlined below:

  • The Safe Files - 6,500 pages kept locked in FDR's White House safe
  • The Confidential Files (not digitized) 
  • The Diplomatic Files, including the following digitized files: 
    • Vatican Files - approximately 1,000 documents concerning U.S.-Vatican relations during World War II
    • German Diplomatic Files - over 2,500 documents concerning U.S.-German relations in the 1930s and 40s
    • British Diplomatic Files - over 3,000 documents concerning Anglo-American relations in the 1930s and 40s 
  • The Departmental Files (not digitized)
  • The Subject Files (not digitized)

To browse or read through box inventories within a particular PSF series, click one of the underlined, hyperlinked series titles from the outline above or Search the PSF and Hackett Papers  to find documents by keyword. 

Hackett Papers

These digitized materials consist of selected documents relating to Henry T. and John Hackett, Poughkeepsie lawyers who handled the legal affairs of Franklin D. Roosevelt, members of his family, and some of his neighbors. Materials come from the Hackett Papers, the President's Secretary's Files (PSF), and the Governorship Papers.

Browse the Hackett Papers or Search the PSF and Hackett Papers by keyword.  

Efforts to make the Library's documents and holdings available online are ongoing and we plan to offer more digitized content in the near future.

Please see Citation and Copyright for instructions on citing historical materials found online. 

 

 
edit