Who Is Buried In Grant’s Tomb?

Last month after attending a family wedding in the Hudson Valley I had the privilege of visiting the FDR museum/library gravesite in Hyde Park, a place that in past summers I would have breezed by en route to the races at Saratoga. This stop renewed my admiration for both this great, great President and his humanitarian First Lady. Oddly, on a perfect summer day there were no more than a couple of dozen visitors that I could see. Maybe everyone else had gone to the race meeting, it being August after all. Interesting fact, the library, the first of now twelve Presidential libraries, was actually started as a real library. Early in his presidency FDR generously donated his personal library of more than 22.000 volumes to the public including actual books. Not to say the others are not genuine libraries in some respects but, for example, the website for the Reagan library in describing the contents of its archives, including papers, speeches, pictures, film, and even Air Force One, makes no mention of books whatever. Don’t blame him, it’s all statutory. The documents generated during the Presidency belong to us, the people. The President’s personal docs, effects and books belong to him or her. But even though the materials belong to the public they are restricted. Drat. The Presidential Records Act restricts public access to Presidential records through the Freedom of Information Act for five years after the end of the Administration, and allows a President to impose additional restrictions for twelve years. It would seem as if this is exactly the time frame that certain information would be of practical rather than historical significance. Before the death of President Reagan, LBJ’s Library was the most popular-go figure. Now with the emplacement of Air Force One, the Reagan Library is understandably the most visited.