Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum

Information About The FDR Speech Collection

The Speeches and Other Utterances of Franklin D. Roosevelt collection includes material recorded between 1920 and 1945. This collection contains 314 speeches and utterances of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The core of the collection consists of 238 disc-recorded speeches presented to President Roosevelt by radio networks and other sources and sent by the White House to the National Archives for eventual deposit in this Library. The Archives prepared a duplicate disc set of these recordings in 1947-1948 and deposited them in the Library. Most of the tape dubbings of these speeches presently used by the Library were made from the original discs that remain stored in the National Archives building under the administrative supervision of the Office of Presidential Libraries.

The original series of recordings has been augmented by a large gift from the International Business Machines Corporation and by donations from radio station WKIP in Poughkeepsie, New York, the National Broadcasting Company, the Center for Cassette Studies, Columbia University and Mr. W.H. Utterback, Jr. of Amarillo, Texas. Mr. Utterback's recordings generally include not only Mr. Roosevelt's speeches, but also the corresponding radio network commentator's narration.

The collection also includes a series of unique recordings made in President Roosevelt's office between August 23 and November 8, 1940 using an acetate recording material and an experimental machine made by the Radio Corporation of America. These recordings consist of fourteen presidential press conferences, numbers 674, 675, 678, 680, 682, 683, 685, 686, 688 and 690 through 694 and conversations between President Roosevelt and people visiting his office. Before the acetate recordings completely deteriorated, their contents were transferred to 16-inch discs. The original recordings were then destroyed. The sound quality is uniformly poor, but it has been made listenable through use of modern equalization equipment. These recordings were most recently remastered in 1995.

Recordings of President Roosevelt's voice are in the public domain and do not require permission for duplication or replay. Copyright restrictions apply to the commentary accompanying presidential speeches; consequently, permission of the appropriate radio company must be obtained prior to commercial use of such materials. Some tape recordings are restricted by donors. Such restrictions on reproduction and/or commercial use are noted after such recordings.

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