SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

White House volunteers created this detailed card index to press releases from Ford's speeches, announcements, interviews, statements, press conferences, and messages. Over 200,000 entries give keyword or phrase, the context phrase, and full text citation. The entries cover subjects from Mass Assured Destruction to broomcorn imports, and places from China to Latvia. Researchers can easily acquire photocopies of entries by mail or telephone inquiry.

QUANTITY
31.2 linear feet (ca. 200,000 cards)

DONOR
Gerald R. Ford (accession number 77-111)

ACCESS
Open.

COPYRIGHT
Gerald Ford has donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

Prepared by William McNitt, May 1983
[s:\bin\findaid\white house press release unit.doc]

INTRODUCTION

The White House Press Release Unit is one of the permanent White House support operations which serve each President. Supervised during the Ford administration by Mary E. Hooper, Editorial Clerk, the unit worked with the Office of the Press Secretary, receiving draft press releases, reproducing, and distributing them. They compiled a keyword index to presidential speeches, announcements, interviews, statements, press conferences, and messages whose texts were issued as press releases.

White House volunteers created this detailed card index to press releases of Ford's speeches, announcements, interviews, statements, press conferences, and messages. Over 200,000 entries give keyword or phrase, the context phrase, and full text citation. The entries cover subjects from Mass Assured Destruction to broomcorn imports, and places from China to Latvia. Researchers can easily acquire photocopies of entries by mail or telephone inquiry. The Press Release Unit also maintained a collection of multiple copies of government publications such as annual and special reports to the President by various agencies, presumably for distribution to the press. These materials were transferred to the Ford Library book collection during processing, but a list of the items transferred can be found at the end of Box 23B.

Related Materials (May 1983)
Related materials include the White House Press Release collection and both the files and papers of Press Secretary Ron Nessen. Included in the Nessen files are drafts of some of the press releases, the text of all Presidential news conferences, and all of Nessen's daily press briefings. The text of President Ford's speeches, statements and press conferences are also available in the Ford volumes of the publication Public Papers of the Presidents.

SERIES DESCRIPTION

Keyword Index to Presidential Statements, 1974-77.  (Boxes 24‑255, 30.9 linear feet)
A card file which indexes the texts of Presidential statements, announcements, speeches, interviews and messages on a keyword basis. The file consists of approximately 200,000 cards.

Arranged alphabetically.