A New Deal for a New Generation

On the last day of June of 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood at the entrance to his library in Hyde Park, New York—the first of the Presidential Libraries—and dedicated it to the American people with these words:

“It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith.

To bring together the records of the past and to house them in a building where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things.

It must believe in the past.

It must believe in the future.

It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.”

“…an act of faith.”  These words are as true today as they were in 1941.  In fact, just this past April, in dedicating our newest Presidential Library, George W. Bush quoted those words from President Roosevelt.

David Ferriero addresses the crowd at the FDR Library Rededication Ceremony on June 30, 2013

 

Yesterday at Hyde Park, we rededicated the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the culmination of a multi-year renovation project and exhibit redesign.   A Presidential… [ Read all ]