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FREMONT, Ohio – Webb Hayes believed so strongly in preserving his father’s legacy, he deeded 20 acres of family land to the Ohio historical society with this caveat: Build a library and museum honoring the nation’s 19th president and open it to the public.
What many consider the first presidential library debuted in 1916 in Fremont, decades before the federal presidential library system was established.
The opening last month of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago has renewed attention on the federal presidential library system, created under the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955. It includes 16 libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Related: Inside Chicago’s new Obama Presidential Center: A museum of history, hope and debate
Former President Barack Obama chose a different model for his center, which is operated by the nonprofit Obama Foundation. The campus includes a museum but no traditional research library, a decision that has drawn criticism from some historians. Supporters note that many of Obama’s presidential records are preserved digitally through the National Archives.
The first library in the federal system was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y., which opened in 1941.
But presidential libraries go back further than that.
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, about 80 miles west of Cleveland, opened in 1916 after Hayes’ son, Webb Hayes, donated land for the facility.
“He wanted his family’s legacy to be remembered,” said Joshua Dubbert, historian for the Rutherford B. Hayes sites.
Because the property is owned by the state of Ohio, it’s often omitted from official lists of presidential libraries.
In fact, Ohio is home to several institutions that preserve the papers and artifacts of former presidents.
Years before the Hayes museum opened, Lucretia Garfield, the widow of 20th President James A. Garfield, built a library addition onto the family home in Mentor after her husband’s assassination in 1881. The addition included a fireproof vault to protect Garfield’s letters and papers.
Many of those papers have since been transferred to the Library of Congress, although the library at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site still contains many of the president’s books.
In Canton, the William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum houses a collection of materials from the 25th president, “mostly personal, but some presidential,” said Kim Kenney, the museum’s executive director.
“In McKinley’s time, it was not mandatory for presidents to save presidential papers the way modern presidents do, which means his papers were not collected together at one time during or after his presidency,” she said.
That changed after Watergate. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 established that all records created or received by the president in the course of official duties belong to the federal government, not the individual president. The law requires the National Archives to take custody of these documents when an administration ends.
After 29th President Warren G. Harding died in office in 1923, his wife, Florence, had crates of papers sent back to Marion from the White House.
The Library of Congress wanted the documents, said Sherry Hall, the recently retired site manager at the Warren G. Harding Presidential Sites. “But Florence decided she wanted them to stay in Ohio.”
The Harding presidential facility opened a new museum in 2021 and is planning a library addition in the future.
Currently, the Harding papers are housed at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, but Hall said they will be returned to Marion once a permanent facility is completed. “It’s going to be kind of ironic when they do come back,” she said. “Because that’s where they started.”
Among Ohio’s presidential sites, the Hayes campus in Fremont is the most comprehensive, combining the Hayes home, museum and research library. The museum and library have expanded twice since opening more than a century ago.
Dubbert said Hayes was an avid collector.
“He kept grain receipts,” said Dubbert. “There’s an enormous amount of stuff – we’re talking letters, journals, recipes, calling cards. It goes on and on and on.”
Today, those materials remain available to researchers and the public, fulfilling the vision laid out by Webb Hayes more than 100 years ago.
Presidential sites in Ohio
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums, Fremont
James A. Garfield National Historic Site, Mentor
McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, Canton; National McKinley Memorial Birthplace Museum, Niles
Warren G. Harding Presidential Sites, Marion
William Howard Taft National Historic Site, Cincinnati
Ulysses S. Grant Birthplace Home, Point Pleasant; Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home, Georgetown
William Henry Harrison Tomb, North Bend
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