After years of dispute, National Archives unveils FDR papers amassed by his secretaries
By Brett Zongker, APWednesday, July 28, 2010
National Archives reveals newly donated FDR papers
WASHINGTON — A handwritten letter from fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and a note from a woman who had a brief affair with Roosevelt are being shown to the public for the first time.
After being sealed for years, the National Archives has acquired the largest privately held collection of FDR papers. The 14 boxes of artifacts were amassed in part by Roosevelt’s secretary, Grace Tully.
It took an act of Congress for the National Archives to receive the documents after an ownership dispute between the government and a private collector.
The Sun-Times Media Group Inc., formerly Hollinger International Inc., bought the collection in 2001 for $8 million and eventually donated it to the Roosevelt presidential library in Hyde Park, N.Y., to claim a tax credit.
