When History Becomes Legacy

By DAVID GLENN

Controversy over the Bush library is only the latest in a delicate dance between U.S. presidents and the universities that house their papers

In 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt hatched the idea of donating his presidential papers to the National Archives. As a bonus, he would give the archives part of his Hyde Park estate, where the papers could be housed. Before presenting the scheme to Congress, however, Roosevelt was anxious to secure "the sanction of scholars," as he put it in a letter